About Fingerprints

In recent years, fingerprints have rallied significant support as the biometric technology that will probably be most widely used in the future. In addition to general security and access control applications, fingerprint verifiers are installed at military  facilities, including the Pentagon and government labs. Although machines tend to reject over 3% of authorized users, the false accept rate is less than one in a million. Today, the largest application of fingerprint technology is in automated fingerprint identification systems (AFIS) used by police forces throughout the U.S. and in over 30 foreign countries.

The fingerprints strength is its acceptance, convenience and reliability. It takes little time and effort for somebody using a fingerprint identification device to have his or her fingerprint scanned. Studies have also found that using fingerprints as an  identification source is the least intrusive of all biometric techniques.

Verification of fingerprints is also fast and reliable. Users experience fewer errors in matching when they use fingerprints versus many other biometric methods. In addition, a fingerprint identification device can require very little space on a desktop or in a machine. Several companies have produced capture units smaller than a deck of cards.

One of the biggest fears of fingerprint technology is the theft of fingerprints. Skeptics point out that latent or residual prints left on the glass of a fingerprint scanner may be copied. However, a good fingerprint identification device only detects live  fingers and will not acknowledge fingerprint copies.

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