Patent US 5,363,453

The invention relates to a system and methods for verifying a person's identity, and pertains in particular to such a system and methods which utilize comparison of a fingerprint pattern for identification verification. The image of a fingerprint of a person to be identified is provided on an inkless means which when touched by a finger of the person causes immediate development of an image of the fingerprint of the finger in a black and white appearance. This image of a fingerprint is video scanned (60) to produce image data which is digitized (10) to produce a non-minutiae digitized numerical identifier indicative of the fingerprint. A preferred method and system provides a non-minutiae digitized numerical identifier having 24 bytes of fingerprint identification data which is recordable within the magnetic stripe of a credit card personal to a person, or may be recorded within the confines of a portable personnel identification means, or within a smart card, personal to a person. The non-minutiae digitized numerical identifier is provided by selectively analyzing different parts of a fingerprint and deriving from each part a byte numeric which is directly related to the ridge count computed for that part.