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| Computerized fingerprint matching 99 percent accurate |
| 2004-07-16 |
| Edited for brevity. Computerized systems that automatically match fingerprints have become so sophisticated that the best of them are accurate more than 99 percent of the time, according to the most comprehensive known study of the systems ever conducted. Computer scientists at the Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) tested 34 commercially available systems provided by 18 companies from around the world. NIST conducted the study to fulfill requirements of the USA PATRIOT Act and the Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act. A total of 48,105 sets of fingerprints from 25,309 people, with a total of 393,370 distinct fingerprint images, were used to enable thorough testing. The best system was accurate 98.6 percent of the time on single-finger tests, 99.6 percent of the time on two-finger tests, and 99.9 percent of the time for tests involving four or more fingers. These accuracies were obtained for a false positive rate of 0.01 percent. |
| Posted by:Dar |
| #7 DC - that's nonsense. Nobody's been convicted on a fingerprint alone. Motive, method, no alibi, yadda yadda |
| Posted by: Frank G 2004-07-16 8:15:17 PM |
| #6 meh mangled that "don't get me started on gun finding from a shot bullet stuff" makes more sense |
| Posted by: Dcreeper 2004-07-16 7:43:49 PM |
| #5 no, innocent people go to jail because of this stuff do you think the lawyers stand up there and tell you "Well this system gives a false positive once for every thousand people checked, the finger prints of some 30,000 (whatever) people in the police database were checked against the ones found, that means 30 people have likly been wrongly identified and there is a 1 in 250 chance that the system actaully missed the culprit.. " so much of forensic science is crap when you get a good look at it don't get me started on the gun finding bullet shot stuff or the 'lie detector' |
| Posted by: Dcreeper 2004-07-16 7:42:25 PM |
| #4 Would you throw all forensic science in the bin then, Dc? "As bad as DNA"?! Come on, you're joking, right? |
| Posted by: Bulldog 2004-07-16 7:15:16 PM |
| #3 99.6%? that's GREAT! why hell, that means only 1 in a 250 will be missed! ugh. and only a 1 in a thousand will be wrongly accused.. (maaan I aint touchin nuttin no more, this is as bad as dna) |
| Posted by: Dcreeper 2004-07-16 7:11:27 PM |
| #2 Capt, Then arresting or shooting them would be 'profiling' aginst fingerless people....... |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2004-07-16 2:34:29 PM |
| #1 This technology continues and the terrorists will be really easy to locate: they will remove their fingers. |
| Posted by: Capt America 2004-07-16 2:32:13 PM |