hnology, designed for use by law enforcement, govern- ment agencies, security companies, the military, and even health care providers. THE UNBLINKING EYE-SECURITY AND SURVEILLANCE The company's SweetFINGER product is a wireless client-server tech- nology that integrates biometrics, security standards, data management, and communications tools with proprietary real-time adaptive fingerprint search and identification capabilities. With SweetFINGER, fingerprint images can be scanned, compressed, and processed through a central system, transforming a procedure that often takes hours and even days to a few minutes. The product aims to help law enforcement and security agents scan, collect, and verify an individual's fingerprints directly from crime scenes and check points or other field situations with a reliability and speed surpassing exist- ing ink-based collection/verification methods. The software works with Panasonic's ToughBook01, a ruggedized handheld PC with built-in digitizer hardware. State and local police must routinely check the identities of thousands of individuals using fingerprint data in different field locations, says Mugur Tolea, Atsonic's chief technical officer. "As a consequence, the data verification process is time and resource consuming." Checking a central databank, such as the FBI fingerprint database, can take hours or days, hampering law enforcement officials and wasting time that could be applied to crime investi- gation. "A real-time mobile device that can collect, transmit, and process fin- gerprints can prove to be an invaluable tool in strengthening law enforcement nationwide", says Tolea. All biometric information collected with SweetFINGER is transferred securely to a law enforcement agency's or security organization's database server in Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) format. A com- plete profile of the individual identified, including demographic data, photo, and criminal background data, is transmitted back to the mobile device and displayed on its screen. Th