Forensic biometrics: From two communities to one discipline

This article describes how the fields of biometrics and forensic science can contribute and benefit from each other. The aim is to foster the development of new methods and tools improving the current forensic biometric applications and allowing for the creation of new ones. The article begins with a definition and a summary of the development in forensic biometrics. Then it describes the data and biometric modalities of interest in forensic science and the forensic applications embedding biometric technology. On this basis it describes the solutions and limitations of the current practice regarding the data, the technology and the inference models. Finally, it proposes research orientations for the improvement of the current forensic biometric applications and suggests some ideas for the development of some new forensic biometric applications.