The National Institute of Standards and Technology has recently funded a cooperative agreement to complete an inter-laboratory study to the assess the practical utility, accuracy and reproducibility of OSAC proposed standard 2022-S-0001 Standard Guide for Image Comparison Opinions (henceforth referred to as “2022-S-0001”).

We are actively two cohorts of participants: 1) forensic practitioners who have been determined to be competent by their respective agency, organization, or other entity, and currently conduct forensic casework on face, hands, or clothing image comparisons; and 2) laypersons composed of individuals trained in forensic science but not image comparisons, undergraduate/graduate forensic science students, and the general public. You must be 18 years or older to participate. 

NC State will send electronically (via e-mail) the following: 1) 20 assigned image pairs (face only or combination of hands/clothing), 2) a copy of the OSAC proposed standard 2022-S-0001, and 3) a report to be completed for each image pair, and 4) participant questionnaire. You can expect that participating in this study will take between 1-2 hours.

This is an 18-month project that started October 1st 2023. We envisage sending data to participants in April 2024. Participants would have ~8-10 weeks to complete their analysis and submit reports and questionnaires back to NC State.

Based on this information, if you are interested in participating in this study, please fill out this google form. 

If you have any questions or concerns about this study, please contact the Principal Investigator Dr. Kelly Meiklejohn via email (kameikle[AT]ncsu.edu) or phone (+1 (919) 515-4748). This study has been deemed exempt by NC State University IRB (eIRB26272).