From: bu571@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Wes Perkhiser)
Subject: California Drivers License
Reply-To: bu571@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Wes Perkhiser)
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA)
Date: Tue, 28 Jul 92 07:48:36 GMT


The following article was first published in the July 1992 
ID Systems magazine and is reproduced here with permission.  
 
I thought it raised some interesting questions.  If you have any 
comments, suggestions, etc. please E-mail them to me and I'll 
post a summary.
 
Wes.Perkhiser@weise.omahug.org
 
-------------------------------------------------------
 
              California Adopts High-Tech Driver ID
 
                               by
 
                       Michael J. Tenalio
 
A new license system featuring mag stripe and optical disk 
storage benefits police, retailers, and residents.
 
 
     An innovative driver's license, with a magnetic stripe, a 
hologram, and digitized color photograph, is putting the Califor-
nia Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) in the fast lane, techno-
logically speaking.  "This is probably the most advanced license 
system in the world," says Chris Christensen, regional service 
manager with NBS Imaging Systems, Inc., the state's vendor for 
the new driver's licenses and identification cards.
     The bank-style cards that the Department of Motor Vehicles 
began issuing in December 1991 will not only benefit state resi-
dents, but law enforcement agencies, the courts, and private 
businesses as well.  Upwards of 40 million new and renewal li-
censes and ID cards are expected to be issued over the next five 
years.  "The possibility exists for this card to become an all 
encompassing identification tool that can be used by everyone 
from local libraries to grocery stores," says Anthony Walker, 
manager of systems development with the DMV.  
     The first-of-its-kind license/ID system is an outgrowth of a 
survey the DMV conducted in 1987.  Those queried included law 
enforcement and other government agencies, retailers, insurance 
companies, banks, and the public.  Their responses indicated a 
need for a more durable and secure license/ID card, one that 
contained a better quality photograph and the holder's demograph-
ic information.
     From that evolved a new license/ID system.  It stores an 
applicant's photo, fingerprint, and signature in a digital data-
base on optical disk.  The digitized signature and photo are used 
to produce a plasticized license/ID card.  The cards are similar 
to credit cards, but lack raised letters or embossed information.
     Until the new system went into effect, a photograph and 
fingerprint were captured on 35 mm film.  After the license/ID 
card was produced, a black-and-white image of the photo, finger-
print, and demographic information were recorded on 16 mm micro-
film as a permanent record.  Such DMV records are accessed exclu-
sively by law enforcement personnel statewide.
     The staff processes upwards of 30,000 requests a month for 
photographs, fingerprints, or data.  Those requests keep employ-
ees in the information services unit busy--5 days a week, 
19 hours a day.  They locate the proper microfilm cassettes, load 
them into reader-printers, then print the requested documents.  
It's a repetitive, laborious process.  What law enforcement 
agencies receive from the microfilm, Mr. Walker says, is a 2- by 
2-inch black-and-white photograph of marginal quality.  Finger-
print images are often "less than ideal", he adds.
     With the new Kodak optical disk-based system, DMV employees 
can access any stored record within 30 seconds of keying in a 
driver's license number.  Law enforcement agencies receive a 
higher quality 3- by 4-inch color thermal print or high-resolu-
tion fingerprint generated by a laser printer.  "Eventually, we 
anticipate law enforcement agencies will be able to access our 
database directly to retrieve this information," Mr. Walker says.  
"That was one of the benefits we identified with the system."
 
                   High-Capacity Data Storage
 
     NBS Imaging Systems of Fort Wayne, Indiana, a supplier of 
licenses and identification systems, was the prime contractor on 
the five-year, $29 million project.  NBS has been producing 
California's licenses and ID cards since 1961.  The company 
subcontracted portions of the project to IBM and PI Technology, 
Simi Valley, California.  IBM served as project manager and 
provided the hardware platforms--two IBM 9370 mainframes--as the 
host computers for the optical disk system.  IBM, in turn, sub-
contracted with PI Technology, which provided its PI Plus soft-
ware and two Kodak 14-inch optical disk System 6800 automated 
disk libraries (ADLs).  They are the highest capacity data stor-
age-retrieval systems in the world.
     The ADLs, or optical disk "jukeboxes," utilize 14-inch 
optical disks.  Each disk holds up to 6.8 gigabytes of digitized 
data.  The California DMV's disk libraries each store up to 100 
disks, which are mounted automatically by a robotic assembly for 
fast access.  (Other ADL configurations can hold 50 or 150 disks 
each.)  "Each record with an image, signature, and fingerprint is 
approximately 25,000 bytes of information," Mr. Walker says.  
"Adding 600,000-plus records to the system each month presented 
some unique storage problems."
     When state officials prepared their request for proposals, 
they identified what they wanted to accomplish--without specify-
ing how they wanted to do it.  "We wanted the vendors, who are 
the technical experts, to tell us how to accomplish our goal," 
explains Alana Connick, who works in system development at DMV.  
"Then we evaluated the proposals, based on both cost and technol-
ogy."  All of the bids included an optical disk system for stor-
age and retrieval of data.
 
                        Issuing Licenses
 
     State officials insisted on 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week 
availability.  Additional support was required, which necessitat-
ed the second mainframe and optical disk system.  Today, each of 
the 200 DMV locations is equipped with a small computer and 
monitor liked to a video camera, a fingerprint scanner, and 
signature card reader.
     After capturing an applicant's image, thumbprint, and signa-
ture, a DMV employee views all three elements on the computer 
monitor.  When the employee is satisfied with the image quality, 
the information is compressed and digitized onto a cassette tape.  
Tapes are sent daily to DMV headquarters in Sacramento, where 
they are logged, then sent to the NBS facility a few miles away.  
There, the digitized images are output to film, which is machine 
processed and printed.
     The license/ID cards are a plastic composite of three lay-
ers:  the print material, a see-through hologram for security, 
and a magnetic stripe on the back of the card.  The average cost 
over the life of the contract is 74 cents.
     The magnetic stripe is encoded with the same information as 
on the front of the card.  The second of the three magnetic 
tracks can be accessed by businesses equipped with standard 
Track 2 credit card readers to verify the driver's license num-
ber, expiration date, and person's birth date.  That eliminates 
the tedious and error-prone process of manually copying that 
information from a license to a check or keying it into a store's 
database.
     "Businesses can do a lot with that information once it's 
captured by their point-of-sale readers," Mr. Walker notes.  
"They can print the data on a customer's check or receipt, or 
they can swipe the card through the reader to electronically 
access their in-house 'bad check' database."
     Individuals will also benefit.  When renewal time comes 
along, the state will be able to provide them with an updated 
renewal license--rather than the flimsy paper attachment that DMV 
previously provided.  In addition, law enforcement agencies can 
use magnetic stripe readers attached to their telecommunications 
systems to electronically inquire into the DMV database.
     "Using an automated citation device with a magnetic stripe 
reader, the information from the mag stripe could be electroni-
cally captured and printed on the citation," Mr. Walker notes.  
Approximately 60 percent of the information encoded in the mag-
netic stripe is included in the typical citation, he adds.  The 
California Highway Patrol alone issues more than three million 
citations a year.  The courts, too, can use mag stripe readers to 
access the DMV database to obtain prior traffic conviction infor-
mation.
     Mr. Walker says inquiries about the state's license system 
have poured in from throughout the United States and overseas, 
including Japan, Sweden, and Israel.  "All we did was take proven 
current technology and pull it all together," Mr. Walker says.  
"We're working to produce the best product for our customers at 
the lowest possible cost."
 
Michael J. Tenalio is manager, Public Sector, Office Imaging, at 
Eastman Kodak Co., Rochester, New York.
 
----------------------------
Reprinted With Permission from ID Systems
Copyright 1992 by Helmers Publishing, Inc.  
Peterborough, NH  03458
 

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