Abstract: An operator interactive pattern processing system is described which combines high speed recognition and processing abilities of an automatic portion with the estimating and recognition abilities of a human operator to extract correct data from patterns, such as poor quality unidentified latent fingerprint patterns and achieve rapid identification thereof. The automatic portion reads the unidentified pattern and extracts specific information therefrom such as ridge contour data describing the epidermal ridge flow and minutial data principally describing ridge endings and bifurcations. Topological data, identifying singularity points such as tri-radii and cores as well as ridge flow line tracings related to those points are automatically extracted from the ridge contour data.