As fingerprint bureaus grew in each country, the need for international standards emerged so that agencies could share and compare records globally. Early efforts included standardizing fingerprint forms and classification systems. In 1908, an international fingerprint congress was held in London to reconcile the Henry and Vucetich systems. Later, organizations like the IAI (International Association for Identification) and Interpol fostered cooperation, allowing police to exchange fingerprint records across borders for fugitives or identification of war victims. A noteworthy innovation was the development of telegraphic codes for fingerprints – for instance, in 1921 Scotland Yard adopted a telegraphic fingerprint code developed by Hem Chandra Bose in India to transmit fingerprint classifications quickly. Such steps were the forerunners of data format standards used in modern digital systems.
The second half of the 20th century saw the rise of Automated Fingerprint Identification Systems (AFIS), which revolutionized how fingerprints were processed. By the 1960s, manual searching of fingerprint files had become labor-intensive and slow (the FBI’s files were enormous by then, with technicians manually comparing prints). In 1969, the FBI partnered with the U.S. National Bureau of Standards (NBS, now NIST) to research automating fingerprint identification. NIST scientists identified key challenges: scanning inked fingerprint cards, extracting ridge minutiae, and searching large databases by computer. Throughout the 1970s, significant progress was made. In 1975, the FBI funded development of fingerprint scanners and minutiae-extraction algorithms, leading to prototype automated systems. By the early 1980s, automated matching technology had matured to the point that several AFIS installations were deployed. By 1981, five AFIS were in operation – used by agencies in the U.S. and other countries to electronically search fingerprint databases. These early AFIS could compare a latent print against thousands of file prints much faster than a human, albeit with less flexibility across systems.
Initially, each vendor’s AFIS was a standalone system; lack of interoperability meant, for example, a set of prints entered into one city’s AFIS might not be searchable by another city’s system. This highlighted the need for data format standards, which were eventually addressed with open standards for fingerprint images and minutiae (such as the ANSI/NIST standards in the 1980s and 90s).
By the 1990s, AFIS technology was adopted worldwide. In 1999, the FBI launched the Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS), a nationwide AFIS that connected federal, state, and local databases in the U.S. and could return search results within hours (now even minutes) for criminal checks. Other countries built similar national AFIS networks, and Interpol developed protocols for international fingerprint data exchange. The late 20th century also saw the formation of groups like the International Fingerprint Research Group to continually improve methods. International standards today (such as ISO fingerprint data formats) ensure that a fingerprint scanned in one country can be read and searched by another’s AFIS.
In summary, from the mid-1900s onward, the combination of global standards and automation propelled fingerprint identification into a truly international and technologically advanced era. Fingerprints became not just a local police tool but a cornerstone of identity verification worldwide – culminating in massive digital databases and rapid search capabilities that would have astonished the early pioneers.
Sources:
Arf journalsHistory of Fingerprints – ONIN
