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When 250ppi Binary Fingerprint Images Were Acceptable

(Part of the biometric product marketing expert series)

I remember the first computer I ever owned: a Macintosh Plus with a hard disk with a whopping 20 megabytes of storage space. And that hard disk held ALL my files, with room to spare.

For sake of comparison, the video at the end of this blog post would fill up three-quarters of that old hard drive. Not that the Mac would have any way to play that video.

That Mac is now literally a museum piece.

By Tmarki – Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8058630.

And its 20 megabyte hard disk illustrates the limitations of those days. File storage was a precious commodity in the 1980s and 1990s, and we therefore accepted images that we wouldn’t even think about accepting today.

This affected the ways in which entities exchanged biometric information.

The 1993 ANSI/NIST standard

The ANSI/NIST standard for biometric data interchange has gone through several iterations over the years, beginning in 1986 when NIST didn’t even exist (it was called the National Bureau of Standards in those days).

From https://csrc.nist.gov/nist-cyber-history.

Fingerprints only

When I began working for Printrak in 1994, the image interchange standard in effect was ANSI/NIST-CSL 1-1993, the “Data Format for the Interchange of Fingerprint Information.”

Yes, FINGERPRINT information. No faces. No scars/marks/tattoos. signatures, voice recordings, dental/oral data, irises, DNA, or even palm prints. Oh, and no XML-formatted interchange either. Just fingerprints.

No logical record type 99, or even type 10

Back in 1993, there were only 9 logical record types.

From https://www.nist.gov/system/files/documents/2021/02/03/ansi-nist-csl_1-1993.pdf

For purposes of this post I’m going to focus on logical record types 3 through 6 and explain what they mean.

Type 3, Fingerprint image data (low-resolution grayscale).
Type 4, Fingerprint image data (high-resolution grayscale).
Type 5, Fingerprint image data (low-resolution binary).
Type 6, Fingerprint image data (high-resolution binary).

Image resolution in the 1993 standard

In the 1993 version of the ANSI/NIST standard:

“Low-resolution” was defined in standard section 5.2 as “9.84 p/mm +/- 0.10 p/mm (250 p/in +/- 2.5 p/in),” or 250 pixels per inch (250ppi).
The “high-resolution” definition in sections 5.1 and 5.2 was twice that, or “19.69 p/mm +/- 20 p/mm (500 p/in +/- 5 p/in.”
While you could transmit at these resolutions, the standard still mandated that you actually scan the fingerprints at the “high-resolution” 500 pixels per inch (500ppi) value.

Incidentally, this brings up an important point. The series of ANSI/NIST standards are not focused on STORAGE of data. They are focused on INTERCHANGE of data. They only provided a method for Printrak system users to exchange data with automated fingerprint identification systems (AFIS) from NEC, Morpho, Cogent, and other fingerprint system providers. Just interchange. Nothing more.

Binary and grayscale data in the 1993 standard

Now let’s get back to Types 3 through 6 and note that you were able to exchange binary fingerprint images.

Yup, straight black and white images.

The original uploader was CountingPine at English Wikipedia. – Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons., CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=90286557.

Why the heck would fingerprint experts tolerate a system that transmitted binary images that latent fingerprint examiners considered practically useless?

Because they had to.

Storage and transmission constraints in 1993

Two technological constraints adversely affected the interchange of fingerprint data in 1993:

Storage space. As mentioned above, storage space was limited and expensive in the 1980s and the 1990s. Not everyone could afford to store detailed grayscale images with (standard section 4.2) “eight bits (256 gray levels)” of data. Can you imagine storing TEN ENTIRE FINGERS with that detail, at an astronomical 500 pixels per inch?
Transmission speed. There was another limitation enforced by the modems of the data. Did I mention that the ANSI/NIST standard was an INTERCHANGE standard? Well, you couldn’t always interchange your data via the huge 1.44 megabyte floppy disks of the day. Sometimes you had to pull your your trusty 14.4k or 28.8k modem and send the images over the telephone. Did you want to spend the time sending those huge grayscale images over the phone line?

Sound effects not included. By Wilton Ramon de Carvalho Machado – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3572726.

So as a workaround, the ANSI/NIST standard allowed users to interchange binary (black and white) images to save disk space and modem transmission time.

And we were all delighted with the capabilities of the 1993 ANSI/NIST standard.

Until we weren’t.

The 2015 ANSI/NIST standard

The current standard, ANSI/NIST-ITL 1-2011 Update 2015, supports a myriad of biometric types. For fingerprints (and palm prints), the focus is on grayscale images: binary image Type 5 and Type 6 are deprecated in the current standard, and low-resolution Type 3 grayscale images are also deprecated. Even Type 4 is shunned by most people in favor of new friction ridge image types in which the former “high resolution” is now the lowest resolution that anyone supports:

Excludes record types 20-22, 98, and 99. From https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/SpecialPublications/NIST.SP.500-290e3.pdf

Type 13, Variable-resolution latent friction ridge image.
Type 14, Variable-resolution fingerprint image.
Type 15, Variable-resolution palm print image.

We’ve come a long way.

Now that you’ve read this whole thing, I’ll share my video which covers everything in 25 seconds.

Fade to gray.

By the time I upload this video to Instagram, I’ll probably use Instagram’s music facilities to add this song as background music.

And note that the band name is spelled Visage with one I, not Viisage with two I’s. (Now part of IDEMIA, along with Printrak.)
But the spelling inaccuracy is not surpring. The band can’t spell “gray” either.

From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZHk4RwIp_g.

For Your Reading Pleasure: Rewrite, Shorten, and Simplify

This week has been a busy week in Bredemarket-land, including work on some of the following client projects:

Creating the first deliverable as part of a three-part series of deliverables.
Reworking that first deliverable for more precision.
Preparing to start work on the second deliverable.
Drafting a blog post for a client.
Gathering information for an email newsletter for a client.
Following up on a couple of consulting opportunities that take advantage of my identity/biometric expertise.
Creating a promotional reel based upon the grapes in my backyard. (Yet another reel. I plan to reveal it next week.)
Engaging in other promotional activities on Bredemarket’s key social media channels.

Plus I’ve been working on some non-Bredemarket deliverables and meetings with a significant time commitment.

But there’s one more Bredemarket deliverable that I haven’t mentioned—because I’m about to discuss it now.

The task

Without going into detail, a client required me to repurpose a piece of third-party government-authored (i.e. non-copyrighted) text, originally written for a particular market.

Rewrite the content for a different market.
Shorten the text so it would be more attractive to the new market.
Simplify the presentation of the text to make it even more attractive to the new market.

The request was clear, and I’ve already completed the first draft of the text and am working on the second draft.

But I wanted to dive into the three steps above—not regarding this particular client writing project, but in a more general way.

Step 1: Rewrite

When you’ve worked in a lot of different industries, you learn that each industry has its own language, including things you say—and things you don’t say.

I’ll give you an example that doesn’t reflect the particular project I was working on, but does reflect why rewriting is often necessary.

When I started in biometrics, the first two industries that I wrote about were law enforcement and benefits administration.

By Love Makes A Way – https://www.flickr.com/photos/lovemakesaway/15802177909/, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=101171928.

Law enforcement’s primary purpose is to catch bad people, although sometimes it can exonerate good people. So when you’re talking about law enforcement applications, you frequently use a lot of terms that are negative in nature, such as “surveillance,” “suspect,” and “mugshot.”
Benefits administration’s primary purpose is to help good people, although sometimes it can catch bad people who steal benefits from good people. So when you’re talking about benefits administration applications, you tend toward more positive terms such as “beneficiary.” And if you take a picture of a beneficiary’s face, for heaven’s sake DON’T REFER TO THE FACIAL IMAGE AS A “MUGSHOT.”

By U.S. Department of Agriculture – https://www.flickr.com/photos/usdagov/6764058985/, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=125179710.

These two examples illustrate why something originally written for “market 1” must often be rewritten for “market 2.”

But sometimes a simple rewrite isn’t enough.

Step 2: Shorten

Now I don’t play in the B2C market in which crisp text is extremely necessary. But it’s needed in the various B2G and B2B markets also—some more than others.

If you are writing for more scientific markets, your readers are more accustomed to reading long, academic, “Sage”-like blocks of text.

But if you are writing for other markets, such as hospitality, your readers not only don’t want to read long blocks of text, but actively despise it.

You need to “get to the point.”

Tim Conway (Sr.), as repeatedly played during Jim Healy’s old radio show. Sourced from the Jim Healy Tribute Site.

In my particular project, “market 1” was one of those markets that valued long-windedness, while “market 2” clearly didn’t. So I had to cut the text down significantly, using the same techniques that I use when rewriting my “draft 0.5” (which a client NEVER sees) to my “draft 1” (which I turn over to the client).

But sometimes a simple shorten isn’t enough.

Step 3: Simplify

If you know me, you know I’m not graphically inclined.

Someday I will reach this level of graphic creativity. Originally created by Jleedev using Inkscape and GIMP. Redrawn as SVG by Ben Liblit using Inkscape. – Own work, Public Domain, link.

But I still pay attention to the presentation of my words.

Remember those long blocks of text that I mentioned earlier? One way to break them up is to use bullets.

Bullets break up long blocks of text into manageable chunks.
Bullets are easier to read.

So your reader will be very happy.

But as I was editing this particular piece of content, sometimes I ran into long lists of bullets, which weren’t really conducive to the reading experience.

Question	Answer	What does this mean?
Why are long lists of bullets bad?	Because with enough repetition, they’re just as bad as long blocks of text.	Your readers will tune you out.
How can you format long lists of bullets into something easier to read?	One way is to convert the bullets into a table with separate entries.	Your readers will enjoy a more attractive presentation.
What do tables do for your reader?	They arrange the content in two dimensions rather than one.	The readers’ eyes move in two directions, rather than just one.
Hey, wait a minute…	Yeah, I just plugged my seven questions again by intentionally using the first three: *why, how, and what*.	You can go here to download the e-book “Seven Questions Your Content Creator Should Ask You.”

I don’t have the skill to make WordPress tables look as attractive as Microsoft Word tables. But even this table breaks up the monotony of paragraphs and lists, don’t you think?

So what happened?

After I had moved through the three steps of rewriting, shortening, and simplifying the original content, I had a repurposed piece of content that was much more attractive to the “hungry people” (target audience) who were going to read it.

These people wouldn’t fall asleep while reading the content, and they wouldn’t be offended by some word that didn’t apply to them (such as “mugshot”).

So don’t be afraid to repurpose—even for a completely different market.

I do it all the time.

Look at two of my recent reels. Note the differences. But note the similarities.

The identity/biometrics version of the reel.

The Inland Empire version of the same reel.

So which of Bredemarket’s markets do you think will receive the “grapes” reel?

Stay tuned.

Little 15…Second Reels

Last week I created two promotional reels. You probably saw the reels for my identity/biometric services and Inland Empire services.

I wanted to share the latter on NextDoor, but that service wouldn’t accept the video.

Thinking the 45 second length was the issue, I decided to create a 15 second version of the Inland Empire video…and a 15 second version of the (50 second) identity/biometrics video while I was at it.

For those of you who would like to”a nice surprise…every once in a while.”

Identity/biometric.

Inland Empire.

By the way, I’m considering creating a new Inland Empire video…with an agricultural theme. (Fruits, not cows.)

Oh, Florida (mobile driver’s licenses)

I should properly open this post by stating any necessary disclosures…but I don’t have any. I know NOTHING about the goings-on reported in this post other than what I read in the papers.

“I know NOTHING.” By CBS Television – eBayfrontback, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=73578107.

However, I do know the history of Thales and mobile driver’s licenses. Which makes the recent announcements from Florida and Thales even more surprising.

Gemalto’s pioneering mobile driver’s license pilots

Back when I worked for IDEMIA from 2017 to 2020, many states were performing some level of testing of mobile driver’s licenses. Rather than having to carry a physical driver’s license card, you would be able to carry a virtual one on your phone.

While Louisiana was the first state to release an operational mobile driver’s license (with Envoc’s “LA Wallet”), several states were working on pilot projects.

Some of these states were working with the company Gemalto to create pilots for mobile driver’s licenses. As early as 2016, Gemalto announced its participation in pilot mDL projects in Colorado, Idaho, Maryland, and Washington DC. As I recall, at the time Gemalto had more publicly-known pilots in process than any other vendor, and appeared to be leading the pack in the effort to transition driver’s licenses from the (physical) wallet to the smartphone.

Thales’ operational mobile driver’s license

By the time Gemalto was acquired by and absorbed into Thales, the company won the opportunity to provide an operational (as opposed to pilot) driver’s license. The Florida Smart ID app has been available to both iPhone and Android users since 2021.

From https://www.flhsmv.gov/floridasmartid/ as of July 12. No idea whether this image will still be there on July 15.

What just happened?

This morning I woke up to a slew of articles (such as the LinkedIn post from PEAK IDV’s Steve Craig, and the Biometric Update post from Chris Burt) that indicated the situation had changed.

One of the most important pieces of new information was a revised set of Frequently Asked Questions (or “Question,” or “Statement”) on the “Florida Smart ID” section of the Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles website.

The Florida Smart ID applications will be updated and improved by a new vendor. At this time, the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles is removing the current Florida Smart ID application from the app store. Please email FloridaSmartID@flhsmv.gov to receive notification of future availability.

Um…that was abrupt.

But a second piece of information, a Thales statement shared by PC Mag, explained the abruptness…in part.

In a statement provided to PCMag, a Thales spokesperson said the company’s contract with the FLHSMV expired on June 30, 2024.

“The project has now entered a new phase in which the FLHSMV requirements have evolved, necessitating a retender,” Thales says. “Thales chose not to compete in this tender. However, we are pleased to have been a part of this pioneering solution and wishes it continued success.”

Now normally when a government project transitions from one vendor to another, the old vendor continues to provide the service until the date that the new vendor’s system is operational. This is true even in contentious cases, such as the North Carolina physical driver’s license transition from IDEMIA to CBN Secure Technologies.

But in the Florida case:

Thales chose not to bid on the contract renewal.
The new vendor and/or the State of Florida chose not to begin providing services when the Thales contract expired on June 30.
Thales and/or the State of Florida chose not to temporarily renew the existing contract until the new vendor was providing services in 2025.

This third point is especially odd. I’ve known of situations where Company A lost a renewal bid to Company B, Company B was unable to deliver the new system on time, and Company A was all too happy to continue to provide service until Company B (or in some cases the government agency itself) got its act together.

Anyway, for whatever reason, those who had Florida mobile driver’s licenses have now lost them, and will presumably have to go through an entirely new process (with an as-yet unknown vendor) to get their mobile driver’s licenses again.

I’m not sure how much more we will learn publicly, and I don’t know how much is being whispered privately. Presumably the new vendor, whoever it is, has some insight, but they’re not talking.

The (Biometric) Sound of Silence

Identity/biometrics marketers (some of you), why is your company so SILENT?

One way to communicate is by a company blog. Blogging provides clear benefits to the firms that use it consistently.

In mid-December 2023 I examined over 40 identity/biometrics companies who were blogging in September of that year.

About one-third of them HADN’T SAID A SINGLE THING to their prospects and customers in the preceding two months.

Bredemarket can help those firms (you know who you are) start creating prospect/customer awareness content now.

Yes, I know we’re right in the middle of summer, and some of you will put this off until next week, or probably the week after next.

For me, that’s just as well. That gives me more time to create content for your competitors.

I recently had to delay working with a company because its competitor was ready to move first.

Good “problem” for Bredemarket to have…but not so good for the slower companies.

Contact Bredemarket…today.

Drive content results with Bredemarket Identity Firm Services.

P.S. Originally this was only going to be a social media post that merely cross-referenced part of an old blog post. Yes, I sometimes goof up myself.

And yes, this blog’s title (with a singular “Sound”) was intentional.

From https://youtu.be/nkUOACGtGfA?si=6nN5moOxoBerxT1a.

Do You Service These Seven Vertical Markets That Use Identity and Biometrics?

As Identity and biometrics solution providers know, their applications are found in a variety of vertical markets.

A LARGE variety of vertical markets.

Seven of these markets include financial services, travel and hospitality, government services, education, health, criminal applications, and venues. (Among others.)

Which three vertical markets does the Prism Project examine?

To start this post, I’m going to cheat and “appropriate” the work already performed by the Prism Project.

This effort is managed by Maxine Most’s Acuity Market Intelligence and supported by a variety of partners (including industry partners).

The Prism Project has identified 3 (so far) critical vertical markets for identity and biometrics. While this doesn’t pretend to be a comprehensive list, it’s a good starting point to illustrate the breadth of markets that benefit from identity and biometrics.

The Prism Project has already released its report for financial services, which businesses can download here.
The Prism Project has started to develop its report for travel and hospitality. You can preview the report here.
Finally, the Prism Project plans to release a report addressing government services later in the year. For the latest status of this report, visit the Prism Project home page.

As you can see, identity and biometrics apply in wildly diverging vertical markets. You can use identity verification to open a bank account, enter your hotel room, or pay your taxes.

But those aren’t the only markets that use identity and biometrics.

Let me school you on two other markets, education and health

Let’s look at two markets that the Prism Project hasn’t covered…yet.

Education

Chaffey High School, Ontario, California.

Another example of a market that uses identity and biometrics is the education market.

Who is allowed on a physical campus? Students? Teachers? Staff? Parents and guardians?
Who is NOT allowed on a physical campus? Expelled students? Fired faculty and staff?
Who is taking that remotely-administered online test?

Bredemarket has written several posts about educational applications for identity and biometrics. You can read all my education writing on Bredemarket’s “Educational Identity” information page.

Health

What, did you expect me to post a Marcus Welby picture here? I’m sharing a real medical professional: Jonas Salk administering the polio vaccine. By Yousuf Karsh, photographer – Wisdom Magazine, Aug. 1956 (Vol 1, No. 8), PD-US, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=27746788.

Similarly Bredemarket has written several posts about healthcare applications for identity and biometrics, including some that dwell on the unique privacy legislation that covers healthcare. You can read all my health writing on Bredemarket’s “Health” information page. (It’s not called “Health Identity” because healthcare has both identity and technology aspects.)

Another source on finance

By the way, Bredemarket also has a page on “Financial Identity,” but the Prism Project’s content is more comprehensive.

But wait…there’s more!

So this is the point where Ed McMahon intones, “So Acuity Market Intelligence and Bredemarket have identified all five of the markets that benefit from the use of identity and biometrics!”

By photo by Alan Light, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3048124.

And you know how Johnny (Johnny Carson, or Johnny Bredehoft) would respond to that.

By Johnny_Carson_with_fan.jpg: Peter Martorano from Cleveland, Ohio, USAderivative work: TheCuriousGnome (talk) – Johnny_Carson_with_fan.jpg, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12750959.

So let’s look at two more markets that benefit from the use of identity and biometrics-two markets that I know very well from the beginning and end of my time at Printrak/Motorola/MorphoTrak/IDEMIA.

Criminal applications

There are government services, and then there are government services.

I started my biometric journey over 29 years ago when I wrote proposals addressed to law enforcement agencies who wanted to find out who left their fingerprints on a crime scene, and whether the person being arrested was who they said they were.

I don’t know if Maxine Most is going to classify criminal applications as a subset of government services, but there are clear reasons that she may not want to do this.

When you pay your taxes or apply for unemployment benefits, you WANT the biometric system to identify you correctly.
When you steal a car or rob a bank, you do NOT want the biometric system to identify you correctly.

Big difference.

Stadiums, concert halls, and other venues

If someone asked me in late 2019 what my career five year plan was, I would have had a great story to tell.

As I was wrapping up over 24 years in identity and biometrics, I was about to help my then-employer IDEMIA enter a new market, the venue market. This market, which CLEAR was already exploring at the time, replaced the cumbersome ticketing process with the use of frictionless biometrics to enter sports stadiums, concert halls, trade shows, and related venues. Imagine using your face or IDEMIA’s contactless fingerprint solution MorphoWave to enter a venue, enter secure restricted areas, or even order food and beverages.

Imagine the convenience that benefit consumer and venue operator alike.

What could go wrong? I mean, the market was robust, and we certainly would NEVER face a situation in which all the stadiums and all the concert halls and all the trade shows would suddenly close down.

Michael Jordan image from Yahoo Sports on X, https://x.com/YahooSports/status/1259846638639763459.

Since early 2020 when a worldwide pandemic DID shut down a lot of things, many identity/biometric firms have entered the venue market with a slew of solutions to benefit fans, teams, and venues alike.

And still more

There are many more vertical markets than these seven, ranging from agriculture to automobile access to computer physical/logical access to construction to customer service (mainly voice) to critical infrastructure to gaming (computer gaming) to gaming (gambling) to the gig economy to manufacturing to real estate to retail to telecommunications to transportation (planes, trains, buses, taxis, and cruise ships).

And all these markets have a biometric story to tell.

Can Bredemarket help you describe how your identity/biometric solution addresses one or more of these markets?

Inland Empire Firms: Does Anyone Know Who You Are?

Inland Empire firms: does anyone know who you are?

Who can help your firm create content?

Blog posts?

Case studies?

White papers?

Social media?

Market and competitive analyses?

Contact Bredemarket: https://bredemarket.com/contact/

Bredemarket Inland Empire Services.

Can Your Firm Use Bredemarket’s Analysis Work?

(Part of the biometric product marketing expert series)

Is your firm asking the following questions?

Who are the competitors in the market for my product?
Which features do competitive products offer? How do they compare to the features my product offers?
Which industries do competitors target? How do they compare with the industries my company targets?
Which contracts have the competitors won? How do they compare with the contracts my company has won?
How effective is my company’s product marketing? My website? My social media? My key employees’ social media?

Bredemarket can help you answer these questions.

Types of analyses Bredemarket performs

For those who don’t know, or who missed my previous discussion on the topic, Bredemarket performs analyses that contain one or more of the following:

Analysis of one or more markets/industries for a particular product or product line.
Analysis of one or more (perhaps tens or hundreds) of competitors and/or competitive products for a particular product or product line.
Analysis of a firm’s own product or product line, including how it is marketed.

How Bredemarket conducts its analyses

Bredemarket analyses only use publicly available data.

I’m not hacking websites to get competitor prices or plans.
I’m not asking past employees to violate their non-disclosure agreements.

How Bredemarket packages its analyses

These analyses can range in size from very small to very large. On the very small side, I briefly analyzed the markets of three prospect firms in advance of calls with them. On the large side, I’ve performed analyses that take between one and six weeks to complete.

For the small self-analyses (excluding the very small quick freebies before a prospect call), I deliver these under my Bredemarket 404 Web/Social Media Checkup banner. When I first offered this service in 2020, I had a complex price calculation mechanism that depended upon the number of pages I had to analyze. Now I’ve simplified it and charge one of two flat rates.
Because the larger analyses are of undetermined length, I offer these at an hourly rate under my Bredemarket 4000 Long Writing Service banner. These reports can number 40 pages or more in length, sometimes accompanied by a workbook describing 700 or more competitor products or contracts.

Obviously I can’t provide specifics upon the analyses I’ve already performed since those are confidential to my customers, but I always discuss the customers’ needs before launching the analysis to ensure that the final product is what you want. I also provide drafts along the way in case we need to perform a course correction.

Do you need a market, competitor, or self analysis? Contact me. Or book a meeting with me at calendly.com/bredemarket to talk about your needs (and check the “Market/competitor analysis” check box).

Identity/Biometric Firms: Does Anyone Know Who You Are?

Identity/biometric firms: does anyone know who you are?

Who can help your firm create content?

Who knows identity/biometrics:

Biometric modalities?

Verification and authentication factors?

Who can provide content:

Blog posts?

Case studies?

White papers?

Social media?

Market and competitive analyses?

I know who can help.

Contact Bredemarket: https://bredemarket.com/contact/

Bredemarket Identity Firm Services, July 2024.

Identity Crisis

Identity professionals, what’s in a name?

You cannot uniquely identity someone by name alone.

What’s in a name?

A unique identification relies on multiple factors.

If your firm desires to tell a story about how your identity solution surpasses name-based solutions, Bredemarket can help.