AFIS Fingerprint Identification And AI Essay Research
AFIS: Fingerprint Identification And AI Essay, Research Paper Fingerprint identification existed in its simplest forms long before it was used for solving crimes. Pre-historic picture writing of a hand with ridge patterns was discovered in Nova Scotia. In ancient Babylon, fingerprints were used on clay tablets for business transactions. In ancient China, thumbprints were found on clay seals. In 14th century Persia, various official government papers had fingerprints (impressions), and one government official, a doctor, observed that no two fingerprints were exactly alike. This could be considered the first observation that led to the science of fingerprint identification. In 1686, Marcello Malpighi, a professor of anatomy at the University of Bologna, noted in his treaties; ridges, spirals and loops in fingerprints, however he made no mention of their value as a tool for individual identification. A layer of skin was named after him; “Malpighi” layer, which is approximately 1.8mm thick and has the raised ridge pattern that we now use. During the 1870’s, Dr. Henry Faulds, the British Surgeon-Superintendent of Tsukiji Hospital in Tokyo, Japan, took up the study of “skin-furrows” after noticing finger marks on specimens of “prehistoric” pottery. A learned and industrious man, Dr. Faulds not only recognized the importance of fingerprints as a means of identification, but devised a method of classification as well. In 1880, Faulds forwarded an explanation of his classification system and a sample of the forms he had designed for recording inked impressions, to Sir Charles Darwin. Darwin, in advanced age and ill health, informed Dr. Faulds that he could be of no assistance to him, but promised to pass the materials on to his cousin, Francis Galton. Also in 1880, Dr. Faulds published an article in the Scientific Journal, “Nautre” (nature). He discussed fingerprints as a means of personal identification, and the use of printers ink as a method for obtaining such fingerprints. He is also credited with the first fingerprint identification of a greasy fingerprint left on an alcohol bottle. Sir Francis Galton, a British anthropologist , began his observations of fingerprints as a means of identification in the 1880’s. In 1892, he published his book, “Fingerprints”, establishing the individuality and permanence of fingerprints. The book included the first classification system for fingerprints. Galton’s primary interest in fingerprints was as an aid in determining heredity and racial background. While he soon discovered that fingerprints offered no firm clues to an individual’s intelligence or genetic history, he was able to scientifically prove what Faulds already suspected: that fingerprints do not change over the course of an individual’s lifetime, and that no two fingerprints are exactly the same. According to his calculations, the odds of two individual fingerprints being the same were 1 in 64 billion. Galton identified the characteristics by which fingerprints can be identified. These same characteristics (minutia) are basically still in use today, and are often referred to as Galton’s Details. The year 1901 marked the first introduction of fingerprints for criminal identification in England and Wales, using Galton’s observations and revised by Sir Edward Richard Henry. Thus began the Henry Classification System, used even today in all English speaking countries. In 1924, an act of congress established the Identification Division of the FBI. The National Bureau and Leavenworth consolidated to form the nucleus of the FBI. fingerprint files. By 1946, the FBI had processed 100 million fingerprint cards. Now the database consists of over 250 million fingerprint cards. Why Fingerprint Identification? Fingerprints offer an infallible means of personal identification. That is the essential explanation for their having supplanted other methods of
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