08/28/2026
The FBI and West Virginia University have long used "Research Row" at the annual Twins Days Festival to evaluate and improve biometric technologies, such as fingerprint scanning. Because families tend to return yearly, researchers track how biometrics age and use the rare dataset to train AI neural networks. Improving algorithm accuracy for twins directly boosts the reliability of everyday tech and law enforcement tools for the broader public.
Participation is voluntary, and data is fully anonymized with random IDs. Research data is legally prohibited from being used in FBI investigations or operational databases. Findings show algorithms still have limits with identical twins, ensuring facial recognition is used to support – not replace – expert forensic analysis.