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seattletimes.com...
Friday, October 19, 2012 - Page updated at 10:00 p.m. Information in this article, originally published Oct. 18, 2012, was corrected Oct. 19, 2012. A previous version of this story said that the bulk of the AFIS levy before King County voters on Nov. 6 will pay for a new lab. The majority of the levy will pay for salaries for AFIS staff.
Portable fingerprint scanners aid King County deputies
By Jennifer Sullivan
Seattle Times staff reporter
His cop's sixth sense told Deputy Ryan Abbott something just wasn't right about the woman at the SeaTac check-cashing business.
The King County sheriff's deputy had been summoned to the store by employees who believed the woman might be trying to cash a stolen check.
She handed Abbott her driver's license with photo, but a computer check revealed the woman had no criminal history — not exactly the kind of person who would typically be passing a stolen check.
Still, recalled Abbott, "I was suspicious of her ID and the fact that when we ran the name we didn't get a (criminal) record."
That's when Abbott pulled out a device about the size of a smartphone and asked the woman if he could scan her fingerprints. Within 30 seconds Abbott had the woman's real name and learned she was wanted on two felony warrants for identity theft.
Even in the increasingly computer-reliant field of law enforcement, the MorphoIDent portable fingerprint scanner is being hailed as "the next step in helping to fight crime" by King County Sheriff Steve Strachan. The device allows cops in the field to take two images of a suspect's fingerprints, which are transmitted, via Bluetooth, to the deputy's in-car computer, where they are then run through King County's Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS), a database of more than 700,000 prints taken in the county.
Within 30 seconds the device will reveal whether a person's fingerprints are on file, either as a wanted person or as someone with a criminal record.
"When I first started using it, (suspects) didn't believe it was real," Abbott said. "Even the guys who lied about their names say, 'That's cool' and 'I didn't think it would work.' "
Abbott is one of three sheriff's deputies who have been assigned the MorphoIDent, which is made by the Virginia-based company MorphoTrak. Sheriff's Office leaders have been so happy with the results that they have ordered six more.
Identifying criminal suspects — or ruling out the innocent — in the field can be time-consuming, if not impossible, for law enforcers. Suspects frequently give false names and can often back them up with realistic fake IDs.
I've actually wondered about that before and I believe you!
Originally posted by AQuestion
reply to post by KhufuKeplerTriangle
Dear KhufuKeplerTriangle,
F&S. Biometrics is not the MOTB, it will be the universal form of identification which will result in the need for an invisible mark to verify that you are your biometric identity rather than a hacked version. Recently, some "hackers" have proven that you can make a sufficiently high resolution of your iris to fool biometric software, the same can be done for fingerprints and the Walt Disney company has developed a program that can make lifelike skin and a duplication of anyone's face that can fool biometric software. This is what the banks will require in the future and requires and international agreement to institute; but, the agreement can be by the banks and would not require treaties.
Originally posted by rival
Any moment now some poor naive soul is going to come in here and post something like...
"If you're not doing anything wrong, you don't have anything to worry about."
AND THAT.....is what worries me the most
Originally posted by Wrabbit2000
Originally posted by rival
Any moment now some poor naive soul is going to come in here and post something like...
"If you're not doing anything wrong, you don't have anything to worry about."
AND THAT.....is what worries me the most
Now I'd never say a thing like that....but.....
Well, fingerprints off touch screens is 5-10 years away from being a viable idea, IMO. How many people here have been fingerprinted on a digital system? I went through it for my Haz-Mat trucking endorsement and for my CCW as well as something else on a private thing. The most recent and best equipment was the Sheriff's Dept for the CCW. It took him 4 times on the glass to get a set he figured would work...and still wasn't 100% sure. My Haz-mat prints went no better...any of the times.
So.. if that's the best that trained and experienced guys can do when you're 100% cooperative and TRYING to give them a clean set of prints...I think it's years before an ATM or Slot machine touch screen actually pulls enough detail from a quick bump to be anything but a smudge..... At least it's one thing we don't have to immediately worry about?
WIKIPEDIA: the singularity and hyperbolic growth
When a quantity grows towards a singularity under a finite variation (a "finite-time singularity") it is said to undergo hyperbolic growth.
If the output of a function is inversely proportional to its input, or inversely proportional to the difference from a given value , the function will exhibit hyperbolic growth, with a singularity at .
In the real world hyperbolic growth is created by certain non-linear positive feedback mechanisms.
hyperbolic growth has a singularity in finite time (grows to infinity at a finite time)
The technological singularity is the theoretical emergence of greater-than-human superintelligence through technological means.[1] Since the capabilities of such intelligence would be difficult for an unaided human mind to comprehend, the occurrence of a technological singularity is seen as an intellectual event horizon, beyond which events cannot be predicted or understood.
Proponents of the singularity typically state that an "intelligence explosion",[2][3] where superintelligences design successive generations of increasingly powerful minds, might occur very quickly and might not stop until the agent's cognitive abilities greatly surpass that of any human.
Originally posted by AQuestion
reply to post by Wrabbit2000
Dear Wrabbit2000,
Have to disagree with you, You can now access your ATM in Japan doing just a palm print.PC World - Japanese ATMs to Use Palm Readers in Place of Cash Cards
And I forgot, many states now require your electronic thumb print to get a license.edit on 20-10-2012 by AQuestion because: Additional Information
Originally posted by AQuestion
reply to post by Wrabbit2000
Dear Wrabbit2000,
It is interesting that you mentioned Disney, they are currently the leaders in biometric deployment. Having said that IRIS scans can be accurate to many feet or even from a satellite. The technology is much more advanced than you know, it is just a matter of getting everyone's biometric information.
It's no one's business to be able to bio scan my ID at 15 feet away or even further. I resent my Government even spending tax money to develop such a thing at this point.