Volume 22
April 2018 Edition
These new innovative technical solutions will increase the number of children recognized and therefore saved from a life of abuse .
To automate a forensic analyst ’ s work , S & T initiated a project called CHEXIA – Child Exploitation Image Analytics .
CHEXIA designs , develops , tests , and integrates new face detection and recognition algorithms , using computer algorithms to identify faces in seized material .
S & T ’ s CHEXIA program has two main parts :
Face Recognition Algorithms ( AFR ) algorithm evaluation .
• S & T funded the National Institute of Standards and Technology ( NIST ) to host an industry challenge to assess the capability of face recognition algorithms to correctly detect and recognize children ’ s faces appearing in seized child exploitation imagery .
• This first required an operational dataset of child exploitation imagery be annotated with ‘ ground truth ’ information ( that is , the key to the test ).
• NIST ran the submitted algorithms against this groundtruth data to determine their performance .
• The results are available to federal , state , local , and tribal agencies by request .
Integration of Face Recognition Algorithms ( AFR ) into media forensics platforms .
• For this segment of CHEXIA , AFR is being integrated into the existing forensic tools , which are free for all law enforcement agencies worldwide .
• The true power of AFR is the ability to cluster images with the same face , drastically reducing the amount of time an analysit must spend analyzing massive amounts of data .
• This allows the analyst to quickly find images of a particular face in question and view all images containing that face for clues .
• To ensure interoperability , an application programming interface , called JanICE , is being developed to allow any AFR software conforming to the interface to be plugged into the tool .
( Learn More . Marie Martinez recounts a story about helping child victims while working in ICE ’ s Victims Assistance Program . )
In May 2017 , S & T transitioned the first phase of CHEX- IA to U . S . Immigration and Customs Enforcement ( ICE ) HSI .
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