What ITL does

ITL Brochure - October 2007

Advanced Network Technologies
 

Computer Security
 

Software Diagnostics & Conformance Testing
 

Statistical Engineering

Complex Systems
 

Cyber and Network Security
 

Enabling Scientific Discovery
 

Identity Management
 

Information Discovery, Use, and Sharing
 

Pervasive Information Technology
 

Trustworthy Information
 

Virtual Measurement
 

ITL News:

Patent Awarded for ITL’s John Roberts’ Refreshable Scanning Tactile Graphic Display
On April 1, 2008, NIST was awarded U.S. Patent No. 7,352,356, “Refreshable Scanning Tactile Graphic Display for Localized Sensory Stimulation”; inventors are John Roberts, Information Access Division, and Nicholas Guttenberg, former student in ITL. This invention enables devices allowing users to “view” text, Braille, and imagery using the sense of touch, both for accessibility for blind users, and for enhancing a virtual environment. Unlike haptic display, which uses force feedback to “push” against the user’s muscles, tactile display makes use of the finely detailed, scanning sense of touch in the fingertips. Tactile display can be combined with haptics, for example, allowing a user both to squeeze a virtual orange and to feel its textured surface. Tactile display can be used for teleoperation (greatly improving the user’s control of a robot built with a sense of touch), and even (with future miniaturization of components) to give detailed sense of touch to the gloves in an environment or pressure suit.

The user places a finger against a fingertip-sized display surface with hundreds of “stimulus points,” typically round-tipped pins, which are set in a pattern that is rapidly updated as the user moves the finger and the display, creating the sensation that the finger is moving over a detailed surface matching the imagery in the controlling computer. The display can be mounted on a computer mouse or in the fingertips of a data glove.

NIST innovations include use of pressure or force-based touch stimulus rather than specified displacement of the pins, use of differential pressure to convey tactile information, and use of human skin’s natural elasticity to help control the pins. All of these are directed toward achieving a good match to the human sense of touch, and toward improving manufacturability and lowering cost.

ELIA Life Technology, Inc., of New York, N.Y., has licensed this technology for accessibility applications. The company has also licensed another NIST patent, No. 7,009,595, for a low-cost, two-dimensional tactile graphic display for accessibility.

States Are Voluntarily Adopting ITL-Developed Information Security Standards and Guidelines
The State of Georgia is adopting the model developed by ITL for agencies to use in reporting the posture of their information security programs. The new reporting standard is expected to strengthen the security of the state’s information technology (IT) resources.

On March 19, 2008, Governor Sonny Perdue signed an Executive Order establishing a single statewide standard for agencies to report on their information security programs. The Georgia Technology Authority is working with state agencies to develop a single set of technical security standards, which will follow the model developed by ITL in support of the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) of 2002. The new reporting standard will enable state leaders to more effectively and efficiently oversee the security of the state’s IT resources and will help to ensure the use of effective information security controls across all state agencies.

The Executive Order issued by the Governor of Georgia states: "NIST has provided a model for information technology security in its implementation of FISMA and.....the Georgia Technical Authority Office of IT Security is developing technical standards and services for use by all agencies that are consistent with the information security risk management model produced by NIST in support of FISMA." More information on the ITL model can be found at http://csrc.nist.gov/groups/SMA/fisma/framework.html.

Updated 3/14/08 - NIST Position on Proposed OOXML Standard

ITL Computer Scientists Receive Federal 100 Awards
Douglas Montgomery, Advanced Network Technologies Division, and Stephen Quinn, Computer Security Division, received 2008 Federal 100 Awards from Federal Computer Week. The award recognizes 100 people who have made major contributions to the federal IT community in the past year. Montgomery was recognized for his leadership in developing a standard profile to support the federal government’s implementation of Internet Protocol Version 6. Quinn was honored for his work in developing the Security Content Automation Protocol, a technical framework that supports the automation of security operations in information systems. Montgomery and Quinn will receive the awards at a gala on March 24, 2008, in McLean, Virginia.