Fingerprint Recognition
portable, relatively unobtrusive in size, and deployable in the near future.11
Integrated Automatic Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS)
Maintained by the FBI Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS), IAFIS contains over 47 million subjects.12 System capabilities include automated tenprint and latent fingerprint searches, electronic image storage, and electronic exchanges of fingerprints and responses. Through partnerships formed between the FBI and the law enforcement community, IAFIS became operational in 1999 to expedite fingerprint search requests that were being performed manually through human verification ― a process that could take up to three months. IAFIS request results are returned within two hours for criminal inquiries and within 24 hours for civil inquiries.12
NIST Special Publication 800-76
NIST Special Publication 800-76, Biometric Data Specification for Personal Identity Verification, contains specifics for acquiring, formatting, and storing fingerprint images and templates for collecting and formatting facial images; and specifications for biometric devices used to collect and read fingerprint images. The publication specifies that two fingerprint be stored on the card as “minutia templates,” mathematical representations of fingerprint images.13
US-VISIT
The US-VISIT program is the centerpiece of the United States government's efforts to transform our nation's border management and immigration systems in a way that meets the needs and challenges of the 21st century. US-VISIT is part of a continuum of biometrically-enhanced security measures that begins outside U.S. borders and continues through a visitor's arrival to and departure from the US.
Most visitors experience US-VISIT's biometric procedures ― digital, inkless fingerprints and digital photographs ― upon entry to the US. In those cases where a visitor requires a visa, the Department of State collects the visitor's biometric and biographic information. When the visitor arrives in the US, US-VISIT procedures allow the Department of Homeland Security to determine whether the person applying for entry is the same person who was issued the visa by the Department of State.
