Latent fingerprints areamongthemostimportantcluesusedin
lawenforcementbecauseoftheiruniqueness,permanence,and
universality.Automatic fingerprint andpalmprintidentification
systemsarenecessaryinmanagingthemillionsofcomparisons
requiredto find acorrespondencebetweenaquerylatent finger-
print andtheavailableimpressions.ForexampletheFBI'sInte-
gratedAFIS(IAFIS),whichhousesrecordsofapproximately73
million knowncriminalsubjects,receivesanaverageof700latent
search requestsperday1 from authorizedlawenforcementagen-
cies. Sotheperformanceofthesesystemsiscrucialforsolving
crimes; theresearchcommunityhasmadegreateffortstoimprove
the accuracyofthesesystems