Press Release
December 31, 1999
Latest Version Of FBI-Certified Scanning Product Features Extensive Scanning Controls
PLANO, Texas — Mentalix, Inc. announced plans to release version 2.0 of its Fingerprint Scan API Toolkit. Designed to enable the creation of FBI-certified 10-print card and latent print scanning solutions by systems integrators, the latest version of the Fingerprint Scan API Toolkit includes significant, key add-on functions that are not available in other products. For example, in addition to the existing IAFIS-compliant basic scanning functionality, the Toolkit now offers progress reporting and scan abort capabilities, as well as overscan support that provides fast, high quality scans without requiring precise positioning of the fingerprint card on the scan bed. The new release is expected to ship early in the first quarter of 2000. Mentalix will automatically distribute online “drop in” upgrades to all current Fingerprint Scan API Toolkit customers with maintenance contracts — which include the leading U.S. and international fingerprint OEMs.
Because the new release maintains full backward compatibility, Toolkit customers can continue to use their version 1.0 compatible applications with version 2.0 certified library modules. Developed in response to customer feedback, added features include periodic progress update functions to enable easy addition of interactive progress reporting and scan abort functionality, which allows a scan to be terminated before completion. The new overscan support feature greatly simplifies and improves the scanning process by enabling the easy creation of end user applications that eliminate the need for precise positioning of the fingerprint card on the scan bed. API calls are utilized to allow the application to determine the fingerprint card’s actual location and enable an in-process adjustment before performing the necessary image-specific fingerprint corrections. The net result is that it is easy to build scan-friendly applications that accommodate normal variations in the card placement and scan process. This is accomplished while still maintaining a single scan operation with very minimal performance overhead. The new functionality not only saves time for the end user, but also results in more consistent card scans. The API is flexible in that it gives full control of the card position analysis to the application, so custom or proprietary integrator card positioning routines are easily used in conjunction with the API. Future certified runtime libraries will include all of the new features. Additionally, version 2.0 integrates with Mentalix’s upcoming Fingerprint Utility API Toolkit™, which will offer complementary fingerprint scanning functionality such as cropping, validation and scanner hardware quality maintenance.
With its ‘C’ API, the Fingerprint Scan API Toolkit allows integrators to provide a scanning interface for users of Windows® 95/98/NT and UNIX® systems as well as multi-platform environments. Features include a fingerprint definition template for support of non-U.S. fingerprint cards or for custom applications, as well as “drop in” software updates for taking advantage of new features and advances in hardware technology. Mentalix offers several scanner/platform-specific library modules, each certified by the FBI as being compliant with the Appendix F Image Quality Specifications for its Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS). Certified runtime library modules are available for 500 ppi 10-print card scans and 1000 ppi latent print scans. Mentalix (info@mentalix.com) also currently offers the Pixel!SCAN API Toolkit™, an add-on product that may be used with the Fingerprint Scan API Toolkit to handle both fingerprint scanning and more general-purpose scanning needs.
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Incorporated in 1987, Mentalix was founded to develop easy-to-use products for the purposes of scanning, editing, and printing photographic images from high-performance workstations. In recent years, Mentalix has applied its software development and imaging expertise to the creation of industry-recognized, FBI-certified fingerprint acquisition solutions. Corporate-wide, Mentalix continues to provide fast, elegant solutions for scientific, technical, GIS, manufacturing, fingerprint analysis, medical, educational, and government industries. Mentalix targets custom, systems integration and off-the-shelf solutions for Windows and a variety of UNIX systems. The company maintains its headquarters north of Dallas in Plano, Texas.
Mentalix, Fingerprint Scan API Toolkit, Fingerprint Utility API Toolkit, and Pixel!SCAN API Toolkit are trademarks or registered trademarks of Mentalix, Inc. UNIX is a registered trademark. Windows and Windows NT are trademarks or registered trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the U.S. and/or other countries. All other trademarks acknowledged.
Press contact:
Alissa F. Payne
Mentalix, Inc.
(972) 423-9377 Ext. 124
