hxn8477%njitx.decnet@njitc.njit.edu ("NJITX::HXN8477") (02/07/89)
Any one know if there are scanners today capable of scanning
finger prints and digitizing them? An idea crossed my mind
goes as follows. If this is possible, then people can be
called in a national campagin to get their fingers scanned
(much like registering for the draft.) Then, with the
help of a supercomputer, a criminal can be identified almost
instantly by matching finger prints from the crime scene
with the national file. I think this would rid society of
a great deal of crimes if the scanners are available and the
ACLU does not object to that approach. I just cannot find
in the literature any information indicating that such
scanners exist.
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------jimd@hpcvra.HP.COM (Jim Donnelly) (02/09/89)
Fingerprint scanners and databases have been at use at FBI and NCIC for years. The newer models (recent 5 years) have reduced scan and search time dramatically. There is a constant effort to bring paper records into the system, to the tune of hundereds per day. It's still years away from the time local departments will be able to access the database over a network. Jim Donnelly jimd@hp-pcd
garye@hpdsla.HP.COM (Gary Ericson) (02/10/89)
I'm sure I saw once, and haven't seen again, a blurb in a PC magazine about a
lock for your PC that was a fingerprint scanner. You'd stick your thumb on it,
and if your thumb matched a print in memory (I guess), it would unlock your PC
for you to use. Haven't been able to find is since 8^(.
Gary Ericson - Hewlett-Packard, Workstation Technology Division
phone: (408)746-5098 mailstop: 101N email: gary@hpdsla9.hp.comjim@belltec.UUCP (Mr. Jim's Own Logon) (02/10/89)
About 4 years ago I interviewed at a company that does just this. The unfortunate part is that I cannot remember the name, Identek or something similar. Located in Mountain View or Palo Alto, right off of 101. This company owns all of the patents for the fast way of storing and recognizing fingerprints. What they do is a laser scan of the finger, and get a square grid of 1's and 0's, representing whether or not there is a ridge at that point. This company ahs been able to show that if you do a series of horizontal and vertical checksums of these 1's and 0's that this series of numbers is as unique as the fingerprint itself. So all of the storage and searching is done on the list of checksums, and not on the actual fingerprint bit pattern. Concept was interesting, the job wasn't. -Jim Wall Bell Technologies, Inc.
msnyder@calorie.cis.ohio-state.edu (Michael V. Snyder) (02/14/89)
There's a group in the next room from me working on that. Of course, law enforcement agencies currently have computerized fingerprint databases that can be scanned to identify prints, but they run on main frames or minis and are very expensive. The problem is that it's a very computationally intensive task. This group, headed I believe by Dr. Rokhlin, is trying to get efficient algorithms for scanning / digitizing prints (eg from an ordinary ink/paper version), and rapidly identifying similar prints, by using a PC with a high power coprocessor board (they're using a transputer). ______________________________________________________________________________ | | | | Handsome woman - lovely bust. | This posting is the sole opinion of | | Fine young fellow - stirred up lust, | Michael V. Snyder | | Babies' diapers, | msnyder@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu | | Bottom wipers, | | | Years of struggle - Coffin - Dust. | "everything you know is wrong" | |______________________________________|_____________________________________| ( poem appropriated from rec.humor )