NIST conducted the study, called the Minutiae Interoperability Exchange Test (MINEX), to determine whether fingerprint system vendors could successfully use a recently approved standard for minutiae data rather than images of actual prints as the medium for exchanging data between different fingerprint matching systems.
Minutiae templates are a fraction of the size of fingerprint images, require less storage memory and can be transmitted electronically faster than images. However, the techniques used by vendors to convert fingerprint images to minutiae are generally proprietary and their systems do not work with each other.
For many years, law enforcement agencies have used automated fingerprint matching devices. Increasingly, smart cards—which include biometric information such as fingerprints—are being used to improve security at borders and at federal facilities. The increased use and the desire to limit storage space needed on these cards is driving the use of minutiae rather than full images.
Fourteen fingerprint vendors from around the world participated in MINEX. Performance depended largely on how many fingerprints from an individual were being matched. Systems using two index fingers were accurate more than 98 percent of the time. For single-index finger matching, the systems produced more accurate results with images than with standard minutia templates. However, systems using images and two fingers had the highest rates of accuracy, 99.8 percent. Results of the test are available at
http://fingerprint.nist.gov/minex04/.
Source: NIST
Related stories:
Metadata bring order to digital chaos
MP3 files, video streams, digital images – the flood of multimedia data swells higher every day. New systems help the user to keep tabs on it all. At the International Broadcasting Convention IBC in Amsterdam on September 12 through 16, Fraunhofer scientists will present professional solutions for the intelligent searching, analysis and administration of multimedia data.
Smoke smudges Mexico City's air, chemists identify sources
Mexico City once topped lists of places with the worst air pollution in the world. Although efforts to curb emissions have improved the situation, tiny particles called aerosols still clog the air. Now, atmospheric scientists from UC San Diego and six other institutions have sorted through the pall that hangs over the city to precisely identify aerosols that make up the haze and chart daily patterns of changes to the mix.
MSU researcher creates system helping police to match tattoos to suspects
A Michigan State University researcher has created an automatic image retrieval system, whereby law enforcement agencies will be able to match scars, marks and tattoos to identify suspects and victims.
New Map Locates Metals in Millions of Milky Way Stars
An international team of scientists from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-II) has unveiled the most complete and detailed map yet of the chemical composition of our Galaxy.
NIST shows on-card fingerprint match is secure, speedy
A fingerprint identification technology for use in Personal Identification Verification (PIV) cards that offers improved protection from identity theft meets the standardized accuracy criteria for federal identification cards according to researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
Crafty Tricks for Finding Moon Water
Bright gray, crater-pocked mountains taller than Mount McKinley. Abyssal craters that could swallow several Grand Canyons whole.
Northern right whales head south to give birth, leave genetic 'fingerprints' with NOAA researchers
Like many northerners who head south to warmer climates for the winter, many Northern right whales also head south in November and stay into April. Their destination is the only known calving ground for this rare and endangered population—the waters off Florida, Georgia and South Carolina. When they arrive, NOAA scientists are there to greet them, and to take DNA samples.
Photo-monitoring whale sharks
Up to 20 meters long and weighing as much as 20 tons, its enormous size gives the whale shark (Rhincodon typus) its name. Known as the ‘gentle giant’ for its non-predatory behavior, this fish, with its broad, flattened head and minute teeth, eats tiny zooplankton, sieving them through a fine mesh of gill-rakers. Listed as a rare species, relatively little is known about whale sharks, which live in tropical and warm seas, including the western Atlantic and southern Pacific.
