I got my fingerprints done the other day (no, I wasn’t in trouble), and I was surprised at how stone-aged the whole process was. The FbF MobileOne actually smartens up fingerprintin’—it uses an iPod Touch to grab ’em.
The FbF MobileOne clips onto an iPod Touch and transforms it into a fingerprint scanner. There’s a silicon fingerprint module attached to the dock connector and the iPod Touch can send the prints over Wi-Fi to cross check or store it locally. Gone are the terribly inefficient days of an ink roller, random pieces of paper, and smudging.
The FbF MobileOne works with 2nd, 3rd and 4th generation iPod Touches and reads fingerprints in the FIPS-201/PIV standard. The thing costs 600 US bucks, so it ain’t for common folks, but it’s a lot more portable for officers who have to lug around a fingerprint scanner rigged to a laptop. [Fulcrum Biometrics via UberGizmo]