The Slapshot SDK Team

Third Place (Tied)

Total value of prizes received through the mFIT Challenge: $32,500

Phase 1: $8,500

Phase 2: Third Place (tied, $24,000)

About the team

The Slapshot SDK Team, consisting of Integrated Biometrics and its partner, Sciometrics, designs and manufactures advanced, high-resolution touchless identification SDK software. Integrated Biometrics provides leadership and highly differentiated FBI-certified fingerprint sensors for law enforcement, military operations, homeland security, national identity, election validation, social services, and a wide range of commercial applications. Sciometrics solves complex problems related to pattern matching and video analytics by extracting identifiable signals from extremely noisy environments. The company has applied its approaches to numerous successful programs involving detecting the presence of persons, objects, and actions of interest in video, images, and documents against very cluttered backgrounds.

Key team members

Thomas Buss, EVP Product Management, Business Development Executive and Strategic Advisor to Integrated Biometrics LLC
Tom Buss joined Integrated Biometrics in June of 2012 to assist them in defining technology and business development strategies for their newly emerging fingerprint capture technologies and to help drive enterprise sales as an OEM technology provider. Since then, the IB product portfolio has emerged as a successful disruptive technology finding great market acceptance.

Mark A. Walch, President and CEO, Sciometrics, LLC.
Mark holds advanced degrees from the University of Michigan and Yale University. After graduation, he discovered a method for quantifying data incorporating a graph-based data structure. Mark realized this method while developing techniques for vectorizing hand-drawn engineering drawings into Computer-Aided Design objects. This technique offered a new way of recognizing handwritten words and symbols. Subsequent projects included developing a language-independent handwriting biometric system (FLASH ID), a new approach for matching latent fingerprints (LatentSleuth), and methods for quantifying voice and facial features. Mark’s most recent work focuses on extracting biometric content from social media, open-source and dark websites. This work entails developing techniques to find very elusive biometric markers coupled with developing matching technologies that are robust and very forgiving of poor-quality data. He has also pioneered work with Touchless Fingerprinting by co-developing techniques for empowering conventional smartphones to capture biometric data without physical contact. Mark has authored numerous scientific papers, posters and patents on data capture and biometrics and has spoken at several professional conferences.

Daniel Gantz, Senior Vice President for Software Product and Services, Sciometrics, LLC.
Dan Gantz has over 11 years with Sciometrics and is currently a senior vice president and software engineer. Over this time, he has been involved in the full-stack development of several of the organization’s biometric-based applications. These technologies primarily focus on handwriting, latent fingerprints, contactless mobile fingerprint capture, and toolmark identification. These products started as research and development projects and migrated into fully supported end-user applications. Dan is the lead developer on Sciometrics’ Latent Sleuth, a toolset that leverages a novel biometric matching algorithm currently used by Latent Print Examiners. 

Andrew Wise, Lead Product Architect and Director of Quality at Integrated Biometrics LLC.
Throughout the last few years, Andrew has proudly engaged with the teams at Integrated Biometrics (IB) to deliver quality certified fingerprint sensors. His areas of specialization include A.I.-based image evaluation, product development, embedded hardware debugging, automated testing, data-driven design analytics, and quality feedback systems. Andrew holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from the Virginia Tech College of Engineering, Blacksburg, Virginia. 

The solution

The Slapshot SDK Team developed a mobile app that enables ubiquitous smartphones to submit high-quality images suitable for matching against legacy-certified fingerprint databases without requiring special hardware. Modern smartphones can collect fingerprints without physical contact and enable every law enforcement officer to possess a fingerprint sensor on the phones they already carry. Smartphones connected by cellular or Wi-Fi to cloud-based fingerprint collections can facilitate quick identification of suspects who do not possess identification documents or present false documents. Tasks that required a return to the station—such as fingerprinting—can now be performed in real-time in the field, significantly enhancing officer safety. The heart of their approach is to develop methods that can use the camera and processing power of standard mobile devices to create high-quality images that can be successfully submitted to existing authoritative fingerprint databases. 

Key highlights

• The Slapshot SDK includes many features and patented technologies that enhance print capture, provide unmatched image resolution control, and optimally focused fingerprint images of all four fingers in a “slap” image collection under real-world conditions.
• The app’s ability to use telephoto lenses using advanced zoom features and patented camera correction techniques allows fingerprint collection at a distance and explicitly aims to aid public safety organizations.
• The app’s file management is intuitive and can integrate into automation systems, in-house applications, or user-specific requirements.
• The app’s user interface is intuitive, responsive, and captures multiple fingerprint images simultaneously.