In which format fingerprint scanner stores fingerprint?

Question

i am working working on project that involves fingerprint Scanner, i wanted that fingerprint to be stored in something, say a database. I searched the web, but there was no substantial information regarding this topic. It might be stored in an image format, but if that it, then is it safe enough ?

Answer 1

Fingerprint templates are features about the finger. The typical image will not be stored in the scanner. But during the capture, it can return the fingerprint image (bmp/jpeg/png) if requires.

Every scanner has its own format of templates. ISO 19794-2 and ANSI-378 are some standard formats.

You can maintain both template and image at your database.

If you maintain

• Image: You can compare with standard image processing algorithms. But may not safe as getting the image by intruder may lead the security issues. But flexible as the comparison can be done at the programming level.
• Template: You need the scanner to compare the templates. May be Safe , (provided if the software is developed with security features considered) as it would require the scanner and the live fingerprint for the comparison, but not flexible as it requires always scanner.

Now it is up to you about choosing the right fingerprint management as per your application requirement.