Patent ID: 7203347

Claim:
A method of imaging a fingerprint comprising the steps of: sensing a fingerprint with a swipe contact imager to provide biometric image data; analyzing a ridge-and-trough pattern of the biometric image data to determine a location of at least a repeatably identifiable feature within the ridge-and-trough pattern of the sensed biometric information within the biometric image data; constructing a composite image from a plurality of overlapping image portions sensed by the swipe contact imager, wherein the composite image comprises the biometric image data including the at least a repeatably identifiable feature, wherein said constructing of a composite image is performed during a same overlapping period of time as said analyzing of the biometric image data; and providing an image of a known size that contains only a portion of the ridge-and-trough pattern and excludes another portion of the ridge-and-trough pattern of the biometric image data, the provided image sensed at contiguous locations of the fingerprint near the determined location of the at least a repeatably identifiable feature.