Black Box Study
An interdisciplinary team from the National Security Sciences and Energy Science and Technology directorates is recruiting study participants who can be available for a single maximum 4-hour activity involving evaluating equipment. Volunteers will participate in activities and then be tested. Participants will receive a gift card for their time and may have the possibility of winning an additional gift card. No charge code will be provided, so participants must participate on their own (non-work) time.
We expect the study to run from July 2026 to November 2026. Participants must be at least 18 years old, be able to speak and read English, be a U.S. citizen, have access to ORNL campus, and able to navigate steps and sit for extended periods (up to 1 hour). Some medical conditions may disqualify you. If you previously participated in similar studies, you may be excluded but can check with the study team to verify.
Personal cell phone use is prohibited during your participation.
Full study details will be provided upon consent, and participants will have an opportunity to provide feedback about their experience and will be free to end involvement at any time.
Information and sign up available on website https://forms.cloud.microsoft/g/XEH7DBeFCr or contact 805-651-4246 or [email protected] to sign up or ask for more information.
IDS + HAB
The IDS Program and the HAB group both fall under the direction of ORNL’s National Security Sciences Directorate which oversees scientific research in areas that are impactful to the strengthening of the nation’s security. Previous work of the IDS Program has included biometrics research such as identification of drivers and passengers through a moving vehicle, long range facial recognition, person identification from UAVs, and other challenging scenarios.
Human Subject Testing (HST) collections are often necessary in science to build unique sets of data in which to make new discoveries. Such collections involve volunteers who are made aware of the nature of the activities they will be asked to perform as well as any potential risks, are compensated for their time, and have all their personally identifiable information (PII) protected. All data collected during an IDS HST event has PII related data removed, and volunteers are only linked to a randomized ID. Volunteers are notified of who the data will be shared with and the reasons why the study is being performed before any data is collected. All IDS HST events are reviewed and approved by an Institutional Review Board (IRB). Volunteers are needed to help build new and unique datasets so that IDS can improve its research capabilities!
The IDS Program hosts several HST collections throughout the year.
The Identity Sciences (IDS) Program is a collection of projects related to the study of biometrics (face, fingerprint, iris, etc.) as well as concepts of both individual and group identities. At Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), the IDS Program is made up of researchers, engineers, project managers, and human subject testing (HST) experts from both the Human Analysis and Biometrics (HAB) group as well as other members across the laboratory.