FBI and Fingerprints

1994/07/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Softwarea

If you want to take advantage of a file of 300 million fingerprints, it is essential to use computer science. You need a computer database that can be used from many places and remotely. However, when the database is large, computer processing also takes too long, and the solution is to compress the mass of information. However, when compressed, essential information should not be modified.

Therefore, FBI scientists call Professor Coifman of Yale University, a specialist in image compression. Thanks to the mathematical method applied, the starting information of the footprint is reduced to a small part of the image without losing essential information.

According to the FBI, it has saved $25 million in fingerprint collection and computerization. The new system will be fully implemented in 1995 and it will take a minute to identify the suspect by phone (20 minutes ago).