Page 54 - Automated Fingerprint Identification Systems (AFIS)

HISTOR Y OF AUTOMATED FINGERPRINT IDENTIFICATION SYSTEMS 39

A serious obstacle to latent print searches remains because the existing
systems cannot directly exchange information for latent print searches. The
AFIS Committee of the IAI initiated a demonstration project with Cogent, Print-
rak, and Sagem Morpho and show the feasibility. The committee reported its
findings at the 1998 Educational Conference of the IAI (see Appendix B). Many
of the concepts became incorporated into the development of the FBI-
sponsored Universal Latent Workstation and the companion Remote Finger-
print Editing Software, both used to search latent fingerprints.
The following year brought another major advance in identification pro-
cessing, as the IAFIS and NCIC 2000 become fully operational. All AFIS systems
were tested for compliance with the year 2000 (Y2K) problem and were still in
operation as the world moved into a new century.
The advantages of AFIS were readily apparent, many of them due to the fact
that searches could now be performed on a computer. For example, AFIS could
process a record much faster because most of the information could be quickly
accessed and viewed on one’s own computer instead of having to search
through filing cabinets located down the hall. Identifications could be made by
looking at fingerprint images appearing side by side on one’s monitor, rather
than by laboriously moving a reticle from one image on a fingerprint card to
another. The images on screen were larger than those on the cards and there-
fore were easier to see and compare. And if there were multiple candidates for
a match, the images could be viewed in sequence without having to physically
remove cards from the files.

2.6 GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF AFIS SYSTEMS
The systems that developed at this time had been put into production without
the benefit of national standards. With funding from the FBI, NIST began to
develop standards relating to the transmission of finger images. These stan-
dards were adopted by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) to
become ANSI/NIST-CSL 1-1993 American National Standard for Information
Systems—Data Format for the Interchange of Fingerprint Information. These standards
provided a guidepost for agencies and vendors to follow in the development of
their AFIS systems if they intended to interact with the FBI.
The next transmission standard, ANSI/NIST-ITL 1-2000 American National
Standard for Information Systems—Data Format for the Interchange of Fingerprint,
Facial, and Scar Mark and Tattoo (SMT) Information, includes a provision for test
records.
The value of standards for transmission of finger images and related data was
recognized not only in North America, but also in European countries. Inter-
pol, an international police organization with 181 member countries, adopted