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A finger pressed against a platen or a fingerprint card provides a fingerprint object which is scanned by an interrogating beam of collimated light that is linearly displaced across the platen thereby maintaining a constant angle between the interrogating light beam and the plane of the object being

A finger pressed against a platen or a fingerprint card provides a fingerprint object which is scanned by an interrogating beam of collimated light that is linearly displaced across the platen thereby maintaining a constant angle between the interrogating light beam and the plane of the object being scanned. As the beam scans across the fingerprint object, the reflected light beam is modulated. The modulated beam is imaged onto a linear array of photo-responsive devices to provide a series of output signals indicative of modulation information. The outputs of the devices are serially interrogated at each of successive scan positions to provide a set of signals containing fingerprint information.

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1. Fingerprint processing apparatus comprising: a source of an interrogating light beam, means to provide a fingerprint object having ridge zones and valley zones in the path of said interrogating light beam, said object modulating said interrogating light beam to provide a reflected light beam

1. Fingerprint processing apparatus comprising: a source of an interrogating light beam, means to provide a fingerprint object having ridge zones and valley zones in the path of said interrogating light beam, said object modulating said interrogating light beam to provide a reflected light beam modulated with fingerprint information, linear displacement optical scanning means for causing said interrogating light beam to scan the fingerprint object and for maintaining the angular relationship between said interrogating beam and the fingerprint object being scanned constant throughout the optical scan, an array of photoelectric transducers optically downstream from said platen, and lens means positioned in said reflected light beam to provide a fingerprint image at said array, said array being arranged in a predetermined linear form for receiving said modulated light beam and for converting the fingerprint information carried by said modulated light beam into a plurality of sets of information signals representing a line by line scan of the fingerprint object, and electrical scanning means to electronically scan the information signal outputs of said array and to synchronize said electric scan to incremental positions of said linear displacement scanning means to provide a relatively faster electronic scan along said array and a relatively slower optical scan along an axis transverse to said array, said slower optical scan being effected by the linear displacement between the light beam and the fingerprint object. 2. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising: a platen in the path of said interrogating light beam and adapted to receive a finger thereon to provide a fingerprint object at a predetermined surface to cause differential scattering of said reflected light beam, the reflected light from zones corresponding to the finger ridges scattering substantially differently than the reflected light from zones corresponding to the valleys of said fingerprint object, said fingerprint image at said array having differential light intensity representing valley and ridge zones, the difference in light intensity at said fingerprint image deriving substantially from said differential scattering of said reflected light from said fingerprint object. 3. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein: said interrogating light beam is a partially diffused, substantially collimated light beam. 4. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein: said interrogating light beam is a partially diffused, substantially collimated light beam. 5. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein: said platen comprises a transparent substrate and a di-electric anti-reflective coating on the finger receiving surface thereof, said reflected light from the zones corresponding to the ridges of said fingerprint object scatters substantially less than said reflected light from the zones corresponding to the valleys of said fingerprint object. 6. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein: the reflected light from one of said valley or ridge zones of said fingerprint object falls substantially within the optical aperture of said lens means and the reflected light from the other of said zones falls substantially outside of said optical aperture. 7. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein: the reflected light from one of said valley or ridge zones of said fingerprint object falls substantially within the optical aperture of said lens means and the reflected light from the other of said zones falls substantially outside of said optical aperture. 8. The apparatus of claim 5 wherein: the reflected light from said ridge zones of said fingerprint object falls substantially within the optical aperture of said lens and the reflected light from the valley zones of said fingerprint object falls substantially outside of said optical aperture. 9. Fingerprint processing apparatus comprising: a source of a substantially collimated interrogating light beam, a platen in the path of said interrogating light beam, said platen having a finger receiving surface to receive a finger there on to provide a fingerprint object having ridge zones and valley zones, said finger receiving surface of said platen, when a finger is applied thereto, modulating said interrogating light beam by scattering the reflected light from said ridge zones substantially differently than the light reflected from said valley zones to provide a reflected light beam modulated with finger information, linear displacement optical scanning means for causing said interrogating light beam to scan said fingerprint object on said platen and for maintaining constant the angular relationship between said interrogating beam and said fingerprint object being scanned throughout the optical scan, an array of photoelectric transducers optically downstream from said platen, and a lens positioned in said reflected light beam to provide at said array a fingerprint image having differential light intensity representing valley and ridge zones respectively, said array being arranged in a predetermined linear form for receiving said modulated light beam and for converting the fingerprint information carried by said modulated light beam into a plurality of sets of information signals representing a line by line scan of the fingerprint, and electrical scanning means to electronically scan the information signal outputs of said array and to synchronize said electronic scan to incremental position of said linear displacement scanning means to provide a relatively faster electronic scan along said array and a relatively slower optical scan along an axis transverse to said array. 10. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein: said platen comprises a transparent substrate and a di-electric anti-reflective coating on the finger receiving surface thereof. 11. The method of examining a fingerprint in which a finger is placed on a platen to provide a fingerprint object having ridge zones and valley zones comprising the steps of: scanning a light beam across said object by moving said platen and said light beam relative to one another and causing the angular relationship between said interrogating light beam and said fingerprint object being scanned to remain constant throughout the optical scan, modulating said interrogating light beam with said fingerprint object to provide a reflected light beam modulated with fingerprint information, said step of modulating being effected by scattering the reflected light from the ridge zones substantially differently than the reflected light from the valley zones, imaging the reflected light by converting the differential scatter of the reflected light from the ridge and valley zones to differential intensity representing ridge and valley zones thus providing a fingerprint image, detecting said fingerprint image on a line by line basis to provide a set of electrical signals representing light intensity along each of said lines of said fingerprint image, and electronically scanning each of said detected lines, and providing a plurality of relatively faster electronic scans simultaneous with the relatively slower optical scan. 12. The method of claim 11 wherein said reflected light from the zones corresponding to the ridges of said fingerprint object scatters substantially less than does said reflected light from the zones corresponding to the valleys of said fingerprint object, and said step of detecting occurs substantially at the image plane of a lens used in said step of imaging. 13. The method of claim 11 wherein said reflected light from the zones corresponding to the ridges of said fingerprint object scatters substantially more than does said reflected light from the zones corresponding to the valleys of said fingerprint object, and said step of detecting occurs at a plane displaced from the image plane of a lens used in said step of imaging.