Biometric identification process and system

A system for verifying that a card possessor is the authorized card owner compares scanned fingerprint data with fingerprint data encoded on an optical card. More than one of the person's fingerprints are encoded on the card, and the process of identification of the card possessor involves the random selection of separate fingerprints for scanning and comparison- against the encoded fingerprints. A card reader/writer reads fingerprint characteristic information from an optical card inserted therein and a processing unit, connected to a fingerprint scanner and card reader/writer extracts from the scanned fingerprint certain well known indicators, and matches the recorded fingerprint characteristic data with the scanned fingerprint characteristics to establish identity therebetween.