University of Warwick releases new fingerprint technology
28 October, 2009
category: Biometrics
The University of Warwick in the UK has announced that it has developed new fingerprint technology that is being touted as having superior imaging capabilities. Specifically, researchers working on the project say that their technology is capable of properly of matching poorly captured samples such as smudged, distorted, partial, scratched and warped samples.
Rather than developing technology that is capable of pulling usable samples from a poor finger sample previous to when the image is taken, they instead developed software that unwarp an image so that it is usable. Additionally, the researchers developed a new way for matching samples.
Most other systems will match the supplied sample to each of the samples in the database, however, the new technology from Warwick instead overlays the supplied image over all of the other images at once and picks out the match. The result here is a faster and more streamlined matching system.
The system has already been purchased for use by a construction company that has installed it as a biometric time and attendance tracker at six of their sites. Experts who have tested the system report of its value within industries such as construction where poor fingerprint samples may be more common than good ones.