While low-cost fingerprint scanners may be the next wave in authentication, the need for high-end systems will remain strong, thanks to a growing thirst of law enforcement agencies for automatic fingerprint identification systems.
In 1999, the FBI introduced the Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System, which allows law enforcement agencies to rapidly identify suspects through fingerprint matching.
And this past July, the Justice Department awarded $16 million to 26 states to integrate information networks for sharing crime-related data, including fingerprints.
To take advantage of these efforts, agencies need fingerprint scanners capable of higher resolutions than what is offered by low-cost models and pre-computer-era, ink-based techniques.
The FBI requires a resolution of 500 dots per inch, or DPI, per image for comparisons, said Frances Zelazny, director of corporate communications for Visionics Corp., Jersey City, N.J., a biometrics solutions company offering “forensics quality” fingerprint systems.
Thus far, Visionics has sold 560 fingerprint-based biometrics systems to law enforcement departments. Earlier this month, the company won a $660,000 order from the Alabama Bureau of Investigation to install 30 live-scan fingerprint systems in state jails and courthouses.
These systems run anywhere from $25,000 to $50,000 per workstation, depending on customization, Zelazny said.
Besides law enforcement, Visionics has been supplying systems to airports, hospitals, banks, border-patrol agencies, day-care facilities and other businesses that run criminal background checks on potential employees and others.
Another player in this market is identification systems integrator Printrak, a Motorola company in Anaheim, Calif. In May, Printrak was awarded a $5 million contract with the Oklahoma Bureau of Investigation to provide an enhanced identification solution that included fingerprinting and connection to the FBI’s database.
Printrak is also enjoying an uptick of sales in fingerprint-based national identification systems. In July, the company won a contract to provide a national identification system for the Swiss Federal Office of Police. And in April, it secured a $3 million contract to provide a similar system to the Republic of El Salvador.
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