Page 270 - Automated Fingerprint Identification Systems (AFIS)

APPENDIX A: GLOSSAR Y 255

ing the date of arrest (DOA) and submitting originating agency identifier
(ORI). Expungement requests are submitted by arrest or judicial agencies
when an individual has been exonerated after initial arrest or released
without charge and recorded as “detention only,” or as ordered by a court of
appropriate jurisdiction.
FALSE CANDIDATE—A candidate selected by an AFIS search as a possible
match that is subsequently determined not identical.
FBI NUMBER (FNU)—A unique identifying number assigned by the FBI to a
subject of a fingerprint record of arrest who has not been identified as a pre-
vious offender in a search of the files. Thereafter, the FNU is used as a unique
identifier for the subject, and any subsequent arrests are added into the
records associated with that FNU.
FEATURES EXTRACTION—The system’s capability to identify, from a scanned
fingerprint digital image, separately definable attributes, which may be dis-
cretely stored and used to classify and uniquely identify that fingerprint. The
AFIS/FBI design shall provide a means of automated features extraction.
FFT—Fast Fourier transfer algorithm. Used in digital image processing to
decompose and compose a signal.
FINGERPRINT CHARACTERISTICS—The word “characteristics,” used in con-
junction with fingerprint processing, indicates any aspects of fingerprints that
can uniquely identify them.
FINGERPRINT CLASSIFICATION—A method for describing the common
pattern characteristics of fingerprints (e.g., pattern types, ridge counts) for
the purpose of subdividing a fingerprint file into “classes” or groups having
the same general characteristics so as to reduce the amount of the file needed
to be searched to locate the mate. In IAFIS, the term fingerprint classifica-
tion may involve either Henry Classification or pattern-level classification.
FINGERPRINT FEATURES—Unique physical characteristics of a fingerprint
that are used to perform automated fingerprint searches.
FINGERPRINT FEATURES MASTER FILE—The set of all records on which
fingerprint feature data exists.
FINGERPRINT IMAGE—A representative two-dimensional reproduction of
the ridge detail of a finger acquired by an electronic scanning device or ink
and roll.
FINGERPRINT MATCHER SCORE—A numerical score that indicates the
degree of similarity between search fingerprint features and a repository of
fingerprint features.
FINGERPRINT MINUTIAE—Unique identifying characteristics of fingerprints
(e.g., beginning and ending points of ridges).
FINGERPRINT MINUTIAE MATCHER—The matching subsystem equipment
that compares the minutiae data-based features of a search print with file