Fingerprints: The Difference Being...

There's something about fingerprints that brings out the Junior G-Men in all of us. Maybe it's the intellectual challenge of unraveling a mystery, the sense of justice in putting a bad guy behind bars, or knowing that there is something different and special about each and everyone of us. Whatever.

Every once in a while, I pick up my copy of Davide Maltoni et al.'s Handbook of Fingerprint Recognition and skim through it, wondering if I could have made it in the FBI, or at least a bit role in CIS: Crime Scene Investigations. Maltoni's book is interesting because it covers in fingerprint-based recognition algorithms and techniques, and includes includes a DVD of both the FVC2002 fingerprint database and a demo version of SFinGe software for synthetic fingerprint image generation.

What brought all this to mind was an announcement from IDSoftware, a biometric identification management company, that it has released PrintSearch for positive identification on inmate release. The PrintSearch program scans and matches up to 10 prints of an inmate pending release to ensure the correct inmate is identified and released. Believe it or not, the release of the wrong inmate occurs more frequently than you'd expect.

IDSoftware is what you'd call a vertical ISV since it targets its software to professiona law-enforcement and criminal justice agencies. Along with fingerprint identification, it produces software for mobile wireless quick-ID, video imaging and mug shot systems, express booking and release systems, GPS monitoring, crime scene image management, video inmate property management, and investigative case management systems.

Posted by Jon Erickson at 02:10 PM  Permalink