NIST Releases DHS Fingerprint Study

May 16, 2007 // Published as a news service by IHS

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the U.S. Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology (US-VISIT) program are migrating from a process that captures fingerprints from two fingers of U.S. visitors to a process that captures prints from all 10 fingers.

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) conducted a study for DHS to determine the amount of time it might take to successfully capture 10 fingerprint images.

As part of the study, NIST researchers also examined how different types of instructions given to visitors affected the fingerprint-capturing time.

On average, the time to capture 10 fingerprints without operator assistance ranged from 48 to 64 seconds; with operator assistance, the time ranged from 50 to 54 seconds for the specific fingerprint system configuration used.

Researchers also found that when an operator helped guide the process, 98% of participants were able to leave a 10-print image to successfully complete the collection process.

Those who received oral instructions or video instructions with no audio component performed equally well; 93% were able to successfully complete the fingerprinting process with minimal errors in approximately 50 seconds.

Those getting instructions from a poster with no text had the most difficulty performing the fingerprinting task. Only 56% were able to successfully complete the fingerprinting process, taking significantly longer (64 seconds) and making more errors.

A report on the study, Usability Testing of 10-Print Fingerprint Capture -NISTIR 7403, is available at http://zing.ncsl.nist.gov/biousa/. A follow-up report will provide details of the fingerprint image quality associated with the instructional modes.

Source: National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).