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Summary
A forum for the discussion of technical questions of interest to USG agencies and their staff that are employing or may employ iris recognition to carry out their mission.
Description
Documents for Public Comment
Some of our IEG activities generate documents that may benefit from public comment. There are three general categories:
- Documents that are sent to OSAC for further work.
- Documents that are provided to another entity (e.g. FBI NGI) for dissemination.
- Documents that will be submitted for publication.
Lists of documents that are out for public comment and the rules regarding such comment may be found at Iris Experts Group Public Comments.
Discussion Groups:
The IEG supports ongoing, online discussion groups on relevant topics.
As of October 2024, the Discussion Groups have been consolidated. See IEG: Discusssion Groups
Mailing List
Send a note to IEG-II [at] nist.gov (IEG-II[at]nist[dot]gov)
If you wish to be added to (or dropped from) the mailing list for IEG-II. Please include your name, affiliation and an affiliated email address. On an annual basis, we review our mailing lists and purge addresses that are bouncing.
mailto:ieg-ii [at] nist.gov subject=IEG General Mailing List – Add
mailto:IEG-II [at] nist.gov subject=IEG General Mailing List – Drop
Recent Announcements:
03/28/2025 IEG Annual Meeting Update
As previously announced, our annual meeting will be held on Thursday, June 26, 2025 from 0900 to 1700 Eastern.
Registration is free, but required for all, including NIST staff and all speakers.
- You can register at https://www.nist.gov/news-events/events/2025/06/iris-experts-group-ieg-annual-meeting .
- The meeting is virtual only. As many requested, we had hoped to make it hybrid, but construction in our usual meeting venue made that impossible.
- Our planning for the meeting is running a little late, due to circumstances beyond our control. Our apologies.
- A link to the agenda will be posted here shortly.
Please register early. It is much easier for our conferences and meeting services staff to deal with no shows than with last minute registrants.
10/24/2024 IEG Annual Meeting 2025
The 2025 meeting will be held on June 26, 2025. We hope to make this hybrid, with the physical meeting in newly renovated spaces at NIST. Details to follow.
Please send recommendations for topics & speakers to ieg-ii [at] nist.gov (ieg-ii[at]nist[dot]gov) .
10/24/2024 Recent IEG Success Stories
The FBI NGI Iris Service has posted documents that the IEG created or contributed to: see https://fbibiospecs.fbi.gov/biometric-modalities-1/ngi-iris-services Resources
IREX-V
Iris Camera Selection Guidance
Forensic Iris: A Review
OSAC is processing two documents that came out of our discussion groups:
OSAC 2024-N-0004, Standard Guide for Capturing Iris Images for Use with Iris Recognition Systems : completed OSAC review, sent to ASTM
OSAC 2024-N-0005 Standard Guide for Minimum Training Recommendations of Iris Image Examiners : in review at OSAC
Thanks to all who contributed.
10/24/2024 IEG Discussion Group Updates
The original tasks for the IEG discussion groups are largely completed (see 10/24/2024 Recent IEG Success Stories above).
As a result the groups are undergoing a reorganization. See the updated Discussion Group section.
We setup a process for soliciting public comments.
06/12/2024 Annual Meeting on Thursday 06/13/2024: Updated agenda
An updated agenda is available at here.
Background:
During the period 2009 to 2014, an informal series of meetings were conducted on a semi-annual basis to discuss US government (USG) interests in iris recognition. Attendance was by invitation and the attendees were either USG staff who had interest in the questions submitted for discussion or recognized experts in some aspect of iris recognition who might reasonably be expected to help formulate answers to the questions. The meetings were called meetings of the Iris Experts Group (IEG) and were generally regarded as helpful in formulating answers to technical questions about iris recognition for the USG.
Purpose:
In 2015 NIST was asked to restart the group. Under a new name, IEG-II, the group remains a forum for the discussion of technical questions of interest to USG agencies and their staff that are employing or may employ iris recognition to carry out their mission. IEG-II will continue to solicit questions of interest from the USG community and to invite iris experts to make relevant presentations, discuss those questions and make recommendations regarding answers to the questions. It will also entertain suggestions from the wider community regarding topics/questions that the USG community should be considering. Topics that are taken under consideration for future meetings will be posted below.
Meetings:
The IEG meetings are normally held in the Washington DC area (NIST Gaithersburg MD as a default). Teleconferences can be setup to explore topics outside of the in-person meetings. Speakers will be explicitly invited; potential speakers may submit proposals for presentations on topics of interest to USG. Anyone may register to attend. Normally, there is no registration fee. Attendees must have credentials that will enable them to visit the NIST campus – see https://www.nist.gov/about-nist/visit . The coordinators for the meetings are James Matey and Patrick Grother, reachable via IEG-II [at] nist.gov (IEG-II[at]nist[dot]gov)
People who wish to suggest topics for discussion at future IEG-II meetings or to make proposals regarding presentations on topics should send a message to IEG-II [at] nist.gov (IEG-II[at]nist[dot]gov). Please include either "IEG-II: Presentation Proposal - ..." or "IEG-II: Topic/Question Proposal - ..." along with a brief description in the subject line. The body of the emails should be sufficiently detailed to enable the organizers to assess the proposals.
Mailing List:
Send a note to IEG-II [at] nist.gov (IEG-II[at]nist[dot]gov) if you wish to be added to (or dropped from) the mailing list for IEG-II. Please include your name, affiliation and email address.
IEG-II Links
IREX Homepage
IEG Announcements Archive