Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

The Organization of Scientific Area Committees for Forensic Science

Facial and Iris Identification Subcommittee

Icon for OSAC's Facial & Iris Identification Subcommittee

Credit: NIST

The Facial & Iris Identification Subcommittee focuses on standards and guidelines related to the image-based comparisons of human facial and iris features.

Officers | Members | Standards | Other Work Products

Officers

Krystal Howard, Subcommittee Chair, Michigan State Police

Denell Payne, Subcommittee Co-Vice Chair (Facial), Riverside County Sheriff's Department

Bethany Retton, Subcommittee Co-Vice Chair (Iris), Federal Bureau of Investigation

Thirimachos Bourlai, Subcommittee Executive Secretary, University of Georgia

Members

Jason Chin, University of Sydney, AU Affiliate (Human Factors Task Group affiliate)

Jason Cuddyer, Bluemont Technology and Research

Adam Czajka, Academic Researcher University of Notre Dame

Mark Dolfi, Dataworks Plus

Arnold Estrada, Eyelock, LLC

Clare Garvie, National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (member of OSAC's Legal Task Group)

Matthew Graves, U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Laboratory (USACIL)

Daniel Heltemes, Arizona Department of Public Safety

Jimmy Ho, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department

Steven Johnson, Ideal Innovations, Inc. Advisory Board

Mark Lancaster, Northern Kentucky University (member of OSAC's Forensic Odontology Subcommittee and Statistics Task Group)

Steven Lee, Florida International University and San Jose State University

James Matey, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

James Maurer, NECAM

Kelcy McArthur, Michigan State Police

Heather Murray, Defense Forensics and Biometrics Agency

Trieu Nguyen, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department

Lori Nix, Georgia Bureau of Investigation (Quality Task Group representative)

Jonathan Phillips, National Institute of Standards and Technology

Blanca Rodriguez, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department

Christopher Roeser, Aver, LLC

Melissa Southern, Raleigh/Wake City-County Bureau of Identification

John Splain, Biometrics Guru, LLC

Chelcey Tyre, Ideal Innovations, Inc.

Autumn Wilmot, US Government

Facial & Iris Identification Affiliate List

Standards

On the OSAC Registry

ANSI/ASTM E2916-19e1 Standard Terminology for Digital and Multimedia Evidence Examination (added July 7, 2020)
ANSI/ASTM E3115-17(2023) Standard Guide for Capturing Facial Images for Use with Facial Recognition Systems (added April 2, 2024)
ANSI/ASTM E3148-18 Standard Guide for Postmortem Facial Image Capture (added October 1, 2019)
ANSI/ASTM E3149-18 Standard Guide for Facial Image Comparison Feature List for Morphological Analysis (added February 14, 2019)
OSAC 2020-S-0002 Physical Stability of Facial Features of Adults (added June 1, 2021)
OSAC 2021-N-0025 Standard Guide for Printing Method Effects on Facial Comparisons (added May 2, 2023)
OSAC 2021-N-0035 Standard Guide for Scanning Facial Images for Manual Comparison (added October 4, 2022)
OSAC 2022-S-0001 Standard Guide for Image Comparison Opinions (added June 6, 2023)
OSAC 2022-S-0007 Standard Guide for Facial Comparison: Overview and Methodology Guidelines (added December 6, 2022)
OSAC 2022-S-0008 Standard Guide for Minimum Facial Image Comparison Documentation (added February 6, 2024)
OSAC 2024-N-0004 Standard Guide for Capturing Iris Images for Use with Iris Recognition Systems (added November 5, 2024)
OSAC 2024-N-0005 Standard Training Guideline for Iris Image Examiners (added December 3, 2024)

Published by a Standards Developing Organization (SDO) & Eligible for OSAC Registry Review

At an SDO for Further Development & Publication

ASTM E3148-2x Standard Guide for Postmortem Facial Image Capture
ASTM E3149-2x Standard Guide for Facial Image Comparison Feature List for Morphological Analysis
ASTM WK74632 Image Processing to Improve Automated Facial Recognition Search Performance
ASTM WK88696 Guide for Printing Method Effects on Facial Comparisons
ASTM WK88697 Guide for Scanning of Facial Images
ASTM WK89409 Guide for Facial Comparison: Overview and Methodology Guidelines
ASTM WK89942 Guide for Image Comparison Opinions
OSAC 2020-S-0002 Physical Stability of Facial Features of Adults (OSAC Proposed Standard on the Registry)
OSAC 2021-N-0025 Standard Guide for Printing Method Effects on Facial Comparisons (OSAC Proposed Standard on the Registry)
OSAC 2021-N-0035 Standard Guide for Scanning Facial Images for Manual Comparison (OSAC Proposed Standard on the Registry)
OSAC 2022-S-0001 Standard Guide for Image Comparison Opinions (OSAC Proposed Standard on the Registry)
OSAC 2022-S-0007 Standard Guide for Facial Comparison: Overview and Methodology Guidelines (OSAC Proposed Standard on the Registry)
OSAC 2022-S-0008 Standard Guide for Minimum Facial Image Comparison Documentation (OSAC Proposed Standard on the Registry)
OSAC 2024-N-0004 Standard Guide for Capturing Iris Images for Use with Iris Recognition Systems (OSAC Proposed Standard on the Registry)
OSAC 2024-N-0005 Standard Training Guideline for Iris Image Examiners (OSAC Proposed Standard on the Registry)

Under Development

Guide for Facial Comparison Awareness Training of Assessors
Guide for Facial Comparison Training of Examiners to Competency
Guide for Facial Comparison Training of Reviewers to Competency
OSAC 2024-N-0007 Managing Head Coverings, Accessories, and Make-up (HCAM) for Booking Photographs
OSAC 2024-N-0009 Guide for Mentorship of Facial Comparison Trainees in Role Based Facial Comparison
OSAC 2025-N-1000-ND Preserving Image Quality in Desktop Documents

Other Work Products

Research & Development Needs

See the research and development needs identified by the Facial & Iris Identification Subcommittee.

Technical Guidance Documents

Framework for Implementing Passive Live Facial Recognition, January 2024.
Introduction to Application Profiles for Facial Searching, October 2023.

Webinars, Presentations & Training Videos

OSAC Facial Identification Subcommittee Updates, International Association for Identification (IAI) Educational Conference, August 2021.
OSAC Facial Identification Subcommittee Updates, IAI Conference, August 2019.
OSAC Facial Identification Subcommittee Updates, IAI Conference, August 2018.

Discipline-Specific Bibliographies and Bibliographic References

These documents may contain information to help forensic scientists, judges, lawyers, researchers, and other readers better understand the nature, scope, and foundations of the individual disciplines as currently practiced. The identification of these documents does not represent an endorsement by OSAC or NIST. Only standards that are posted on the OSAC Registry and Technical Guidance documents, are endorsed by OSAC. The referenced documents may be subject to copyright. Note: Subcommittee position statements or responses to data collections by the subcommittee do not necessarily represent the position of OSAC or NIST.

FISWG:

SWGDE:

SWGIT:

ISO:

ANSI/NIST:

OTHER: