U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation, J. Edgar Hoover Building, Rm 6875, 935 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Washington, DC 20535-0001

70 -- INFORMATION FOR FINGERPRINT CAPTURE RESOLUTION FOR DIGITAL TEN-PRINT FINGERPRINT IMAGES DUE 043099 POC Thomas J. Roberts, FBI HQ Room 9390, 935 Pennsylvania Ave. N.W., Washington, D.C. 20535. This is a request for information only. No Specific SOL or RFP is planned. The Federal Bureau of Investigation, Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Division, Advisory Policy Board (APB) has formed a task force to review the current standards for the capture and transmission of digital ten-print fingerprint images with a view to migrating to higher capture resolutions in the future. Since the late 1970's the standard capture resolution for digital ten-print fingerprint images has been 500 pixels per inch with 256 levels (8) bits) of grey scale. This level of image quality has proven to be quite adequate to support Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) searches and visual, on-screen ten-print to ten-print comparisons. However, members of the latent fingerprint community believe that a resolution of 500 ppi is not sufficient to capture critical fingerprint ridge and pore detail needed to make tough latent print comparisons. During the 1970s and 1980s, when the current 500 pixel per inch (ppi) standard was established, technology could not reliably and cost effectively support capture and transmission resolutions much in excess of 500 ppi. Over the last decade, however, the cost of computer storage and transmission capacity has dropped dramatically and many commercial products are now available that support digital image processing at resolutions much higher than 500 ppi. High resolution standards for image capture and compression are needed to take advantage of technology enhancements while maintaining interoperability with existing systems. The CJIS APB believes it is appropriate to review the current standards and identify a recommended strategy for the criminal justice community to migrate to higher resolutions for the capture, transmission, and storage of ten-print digital fingerprint images in the future. In response to concerns expressed by participants at the Fingerprint Data Interchange Workshop sponsored by the National Institute of Standards and Technology in September 1998 theAPB has formed an Image Quality Task Force to study this issue. The task force realizes that there are currently hundreds of existing fingerprint identification systems and digital fingerprint image repositories that support the 500 ppi standard. These existing systems and repositories must continue to be able to operate in the future. Therefore, any recommended migration strategy must include support for the existing 500 ppi standard as well as one or more higher resolutions. In fact, new systems employing a higher resolution standard must accept responsibility for maintaining interoperability with existing systems. The task force has identified two possible migration strategies for consideration: resolutions of 1000 ppi and multiples of 1000 ppi (i.e. 1000 ppi, 2000 ppi, 4000 ppi, ...) and resolutions of 1200 ppi and multiples of 1200 ppi (i.e. 1200 ppi, 2400 ppi, 4800 ppi,...). Each one appears to have some advantages. On the one hand 1000 ppi would simplify interoperability between new images captured atthis rate and existing systems that only support 500 ppi. On the other hand there are many commercial document scanning products currently designed to support a resolution of 1200 ppi. Other resolutions may be feasible as well. In particular the task force seeks information in the following areas: (1) Advantages and disadvantages of migration strategies to higher capture resolutions including 1000 ppi and multiples of 1000 ppi, and 1200 ppi and multiples of 1200 ppi, for live-scan and card scan devices. (2) Advantages and disadvantages of recommending and supporting more than a single migration strategy. (3) Forecast of industry trends in image processing that might affect the criminal justice community's fingerprint examination methods, level of detail, and associated attributes in the future. (4) Recommendations on how a migration strategy to higher ten-print capture resolutions can be effectively implemented in order to minimize disruption to existing systems. All information, comments, and/or recommendations from industry should contain product information, necessary installed database and details about the company in writing by April 30, 1999 to be considered in the current review. Comments should be addressed to Thomas J. Roberts, FBI HQ Room 9390, 935 Pennsylvania Ave. N.W., Washington, D.C. 20535. Posted 03/08/99 (W-SN306168). (0067)

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