Researchers collect biometric data at Twins Days Festival

The annual Twins Days Festival in Twinsburg, Ohio took place this weekend offering a chance for researchers to dive into a unique educational opportunity, reports WKYC.

The annual Twins Days Festival for biological twins, and other multiples, has taken place every summer since 1976. It is the largest annual gathering of twins in the world, and draws thousands of participants from all over the United States and elsewhere in the world.

Inside the festival, a row of tents known as ‘Research Plaza’ is set up by researchers to conduct a list of surveys and tests. Hundreds of pairs of twins and multiples were surveyed last year.

“It gives us a unique opportunity to be in an area where twins have congregated,” explains Associate Professor Jeremy Dawson with West Virginia University. “There’s really nothing like it the United States.”

Dawson works with a research team at WVU and the FBI to learn more about biometric data. “If two identical people are in the same database, it creates a problem for identification,” said Dawson. “We hope to collect data that will help us to develop better facial recognition systems.”

That means finding the subtle differences that make identical twins unique.

“Humans have unique hand geometry, just like face, and so we take really detailed hand geometry images to see what the differences are between people.”

Article Topics

biometrics  |  biometrics research  |  facial recognition  |  hand biometrics  |  identity verification