I'll copy the last two paragraphs from techreview.com
which is an article in TECHNOLOGY REVIEW, MIT'S Magazine of Innovation (Jan-Feb 1999 issue, P62) titled “The Tide of Prints” by Eric Scigliano, that discusses the evolution of the FBI's IAFIS system. The article is fairly long so here are just the last two paragraphs:
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German predicts the paradigm will really pop after this November, when the FBI will release Lockheed Martin's minutiae-extraction software into the public domain. “It'll be like phone-company deregulation. A lot of software companies will spring into AFIS.” Where only about 600 larger cities and agencies now have it, individual police precincts will get their own, German believes. Initially, at least, that should create much more demand for the FBI's IAFIS, as the hub of a fast-expanding network. But what about when all those little AFISes learn to swap prints and searches directly, on the Internet search-engine model?
As prices drop, German foresees, “You could build your own AFIS.” Imagine. Instead of tracking each other down by name via Hotbot or AltaVista, we'll trace each other's fingerprints. Who was that woman at the party last night? Pull a print off her wineglass. In the near future, thanks to new technology, look for gloves to become very, very fashionable.
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Does this worry anyone? Time to get the H_ll out?
Leon |
