Wednesday, 19 March 2014 00:00
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About Rs. 1 billion was saved, thanks to the development of the recently introduced Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) locally, says ICT Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) Chairman Prof. P.W. Epasinghe. This AIFS was launched by Telecommunications and Information Technology Minister Ranjith Siyambalapitiya and Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa at the National Deyata Kirula Development Exhibition 2014, in Kuliyapitiya on 27 February.
The system replacing the 106 year old manual system is a product of the joint initiative of ICTA and UCSC. Developed by UCSC, it is a totally Sri Lankan achievement using the talents of Sri Lankan experts.
Through this system the University of Colombo School of Computing (UCSC) and the ICT Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) have facilitated 10-print identification (Convict Identification) quickly and at low cost.
Prior to the introduction of this innovation, the 10-print finger print police report took a period of time ranging from a day to 14 days. With the introduction of the ICT leveraged innovation the time taken for a 10-print finger print identification is less than three minutes. With computerisation of the Criminal Record Division (CRD) of Sri Lanka Police, the whole process of identification and preparation of report takes less than 30 minutes.
Sri Lanka has been invited to present this internationally lauded system at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) held in Paris in June 2014 June, says Prof Epasinghe.
“Several new algorithms required for Sri Lankan conditions were developed for this fingerprint identification system,” says UCSC Software Unit Head Harsha Wijayawardhana elaborating on the uniqueness of the system. “If we had purchased the system from overseas as available in those countries as suitable to them, it would have cost the Government a lot. But we adapted the existing system to suit Sri Lanka.
“This system also helps maintaining the confidentiality of the records. In order to speed up identification, several new algorithms had been used in the system based upon Parallel Computing. It is now possible to bring down the time taken for recognition by adding a server or servers to the present system. As a result of the use of server farm or collection of computer servers, cost is reduced drastically and identification of 10-print is made within three minutes with 99.9999% accuracy.”
Within 12 days after the launch of the system 10-print fingerprints of 4,035 persons were identified and verified. Out of these 899 were identified as being those of known criminals. This is 22% of the total number of persons identified. By now 397,000 finger prints collected from crime scenes have been included in the newly launched AFIS.
Presidential Secretary Lalith Weeratunga and Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa commended the ICTA on the development this AFIS.
UCSC-ICTA innovation facilitates quick convict identification
University of Colombo School of Computing (UCSC) and the ICT Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) have facilitated 10-print identification (Convict Identification) and police report preparation at low cost and within a short time. In addition, finger prints which are found at crime scenes (latent prints) will be identified by machine against the whole finger print database in a short time.
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This is because this system is entirely local in which instead of using foreign software all the algorithms required for local conditions were developed by local experts.
