Fingerprint Recognition
individual’s biographical data, fingerprint classification data, and minutiae were stored because the cost of storage for the digital images of the fingerprints was prohibitive.1
Over the next few decades, NIST focused on and led developments in automatic methods of digitizing inked fingerprints and the effects of image compression on image quality, classification, extraction of minutiae, and matching.3 The work at NIST led to the development of the M40 algorithm, the first operational matching algorithm used at the FBI1 for narrowing the human search. The results produced by the M40 algorithm were provided to trained and specialized human technicians who evaluated the significantly smaller set of candidate images. The available fingerprint technology continued to improve and by 1981, five Automated Fingerprint Identification Systems (AFIS) had been deployed.1 Various state systems within the US and other countries had implemented their own standalone systems, developed by a number of different vendors. During this evolution, communication and information exchange between the systems were overlooked, meaning that a fingerprint collected on one system could not be searched against another system.1 These oversights led to the need for and development of fingerprint standards.
As the need for an integrated identification system within the US criminal justice community quickly became apparent, the next stage in fingerprint automation occurred at the end of the Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS) competition in 1994. The competition identified and investigated three major challenges: 1 digital fingerprint acquisition, 2 local ridge characteristic extraction, and 3 ridge characteristic pattern matching.4 Demonstrated model systems were evaluated based on specific performance requirements. Lockheed Martin was selected to build the AFIS segment of the FBI’s IAFIS project and the major IAFIS components were operational by 1999.3 Also in this timeframe, commercial fingerprint verification products began to appear for various access control, logon, and benefit verification functions.
Approach
Concept
A fingerprint usually appears as a series of dark lines that represent the high, peaking portion of the friction ridge skin, while the valleys between these ridges appears as white space
