Information technology consultancy, Computer Management Group Ltd has won its first Home Office contract, valued at UKP270,000, to support the body in its procurement of a new national automated fingerprint identification system, NAFIS: the deal will last for 12 months, during which time London-based CMG will draw up a technical review and help formulate the operational requirements of the system; it will also oversee quality assurance and support design and analysis; and finally, it will aid the Home Office in drawing up a shortlist for the main contractor; the project will centre around image processing and pattern recognition technology – the possible use of neural networks will also be assessed to reduce the problem of pattern classification; and new image compression techniques will be developed to keep the cost of data storage capacity to acceptable levels; the Home Office is expected to spend UKP45m on the project, which should be operational by 1997; NAFIS will interface with the National Criminal Record System, the National Fingerprint Image System, and the Police National Network, the company said.
