IT WAS DETERMINED THAT OF THE FOUR OPERATIONS INVOLVED (READING, REGISTRATION, CLASSIFICATION, AND MATCHING), READING AND MATCHING OF FINGERPRINTS WERE THE TWO MOST CRITICAL PROCEDURES. THE CORNELL AERONAUTICAL LABORATORY DEVELOPED FINDER, A PROTOTYPE AUTOMATIC FINGERPRINT READER. THE SYSTEM CONSISTS OF A CARD-MOVING MECHANISM WHICH IS LOADED BY AN OPERATOR. THIS MECHANISM MOVES THE STANDARD FINGERPRINT CARDS TO A PRECISION FLYING-SPOT SCANNER. VARIATIONS IN LIGHT REFLECTION DURING SCANNING ARE PASSED ON TO THE PREPROCESSOR WHICH USES THE DATA TO PRODUCE AN ENHANCED REPRESENTATION OF THE FINGERPRINT. THE ENHANCEMENT SUPPLIES RIDGE DIRECTION DATA TO BE USED FOR LATER CLASSIFICATION AND REGISTRATION AS WELL AS MINUTIAE DATA WHICH ARE USED FOR MATCHING. THIS INFORMATION IS THEN PASSED ON TO THE COMPUTER WHICH PERFORMS POSTEDIT FUNCTIONS AND RECORDS THE DATA ONTO MAGNETIC TAPE FOR FURTHER PROCESSING. THE MAGNETIC TAPE IS PROCESSED BY A GENERAL PURPOSE COMPUTER WHICH PERFORMS REGISTRATION AND CLASSIFICATION PROCEDURES. CLASSIFICATION CODES AND MINUTI DATA ARE RETAINED FOR FILING AND MATCHING PURPOSES. THE MATCHING PROCEDURE HAS BEEN SUCCESSFULLY USED WITH BOTH MANUALLY RECORDED AND MACHINE-READ MINUTIAE DATA FROM BOTH ROLLED AND PLAIN PRINTS AND IS RELATIVELY UNAFFECTED BY NORMAL DISTORTION OF FINGERPRINTS OR BY THE PRESENCE OF UNCORRELATED MINUTIAE CAUSED BY FALSE DETECTIONS OR UNDETECTED TRUE MINUTIAE. THE FINDER SYSTEM HAS BEEN DESIGNED TO PROCESS 10-FINGER CARDS WHICH ARE NOT MATCHED BY PRIOR COMPUTERIZED NAME SEARCH OR WHICH ARE MATCHED BUT FAIL SUBSEQUENT VISUAL VERIFICATION. FOLLOWING THE MATCHING PROCEDURE, VERIFICATION IS PERFORMED VISUALLY. PHOTOGRAPHS AND DRAWINGS OF THE FINDER SYSTEM, DATA FLOW, AND ENHANCED FINGERPRINTS AND OTHER PROCESSING PRODUCTS ARE INCLUDED. REFERENCES ARE ALSO PROVIDED. (JAP)