1. Fingerprint recognition: A fingerprint is made up of ridges and furrows. Uniqueness is

Biometrics technology aims at utilizing major and distinctive characteristics such as behavioral or biological, for the sake of positively indentifying people. With the help of a combination of hardware and specific identifying sets of rules, a basic human attribute, automated biometric recognition mimics to distinguish and categorize other people as individual and unique. But the challenges surrounding biometrics are great as well.

Lee, H. (2001). Advances in Fingerprint Technology, Second Edition, 2nd Edition. Retrieved January 26, 2015, from Vital Source: http://online.vitalsource.com/books/9781420041347

The next significant advancement in fingerprinting was achieved by an Englishman, Dr. Henry Faulds, who created a fingerprint classification method and suggested using printers’ ink to obtain quality fingerprints (The History of Fingerprints). Perhaps the most important advancement in fingerprinting came in 1892, when a British Anthropologist, Sir Francis Galton, published the book Fingerprints. For a while it had been thought that no two fingerprints were identical. However, Galton became the first to scientifically prove this, as well as the fact that fingerprints remain unchanged throughout a person’s life (The History of Fingerprints). It was these two facts that made fingerprinting the preferred method of identification.

Fingerprint comparison has always interested me because of the uniqueness in friction ridge detail. As a fingerprint expert, you learn that there are no two individual in the world that have the same fingerprints. Individuals can share the same DNA but their fingerprints will always be different. Examiners may be able to find two fingerprints that have many of the same characteristics, but not exactly the same as in the case of the Madrid bombing. The basics of fingerprint comparison will always be the same. However, it fascinates me how procedures change, and make fingerprint comparison more of a science.

Though Hershel, Faulds, Galton and others set the stage in methods to indicate fingerprints should have been used for identification there was still controversy around the science. With the advances of technology, we now have a better understanding of why fingerprints have only been identified to a single individual. They are unique and permanent. Embryology finds six weeks in utero formations of early notching for what will become fingers starts. By week seven, webbing of the finger is almost gone and volar pads start to form. During week ten through twelve, initial formation of epidermal ridges begin. Primary ridges begin at the apex of the volar pads, tip of the finger and just above the first joint. Secondary ridges start to form by week sixteen and stop the formation of primary ridges. By twenty-four weeks ridge formation has completely finished. For over one hundred years friction ridge impressions have been only known to relate back to only one source thus resulting its broad usage in law enforcement, banking, government buildings for identification purposes and etc.

Fingerprints are impressions left by ridges that press against things and leave a mark. They’re formed in the basal layer of skin while in the womb. The three fundamental principles of fingerprints are: no two fingerprints are the same, a fingerprint will remain the same for a lifetime, and there are general ridge patterns found in fingerprints that allow them to be systematically classified. Arches, whorls, and loops are the three basic fingerprint patterns. There also four subgroups which are plain, central pocket, double/double loop, and accidental. A minutiae, or ridge characteristic, are characteristics within a fingerprint that must make up for identification. Some examples of individual ridge characteristics would be bifurcation, short ridge, dot, etc. With the use of fingerprints, many individuals have been identified in criminal investigations.

Girard (2011, p.134) states that fingerprint would be really valuable evidence for investigators because it can be helpful to approach the crime scene, which perpetrator did. Human being have some similarity in body parts but everyone across the world have their individual fingerprint that will not change over a lifetime period. And one unique thing is that ‘ the probabilities of two fingerprints being the same are 1 in 64 billion’.

The reason why it is so accurate is because the iris in human eyes is completely formed by the eighth month of a person’s life. Iris recognition can be used to identify a person of practically any age.

Biometrics is a term that refers to the broad amassment of various human characteristics. In computer science, biometrics authentication is used for access and a form of identification. Biometrics can also be used to survey and identify individuals in groups. Statistically, biometrics are unique and measurable to only one individual. When biometrics are used in authentication they can be broken down into two groups of measurability, physiological characteristics and behavioral characteristics. Physiological characteristic can be, but are not limited to, Biometrics that consist of a person’s Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), fingerprints, face, hands, eyes, ears or even odor. The second of the two characteristics, are the behavioral

“Fingerprint recognition is one of the divorce inference using the impressions made by the minute ridge formations or patterns found on the fingertips. No two people have exactly the same arrangement of the ridge patterns, and the remaining patterns of any one individual unchanged. Fingerprints infallible provide a means of personal identification. Other personal characteristics may change, but not fingerprints”. (1)

Finger prints today are used in a number of different ways including the prevention of forgery, identify an accident victim, verify job applicants, provide personalized access to everything from ATMs to computer networks and even phone security. But what fingerprints are useful for in forensics is that no two people have been found to have the same fingerprints as there is a one in 64 billion chance that your fingerprint will match up precisely with someone else's. Fingerprints are even more unique than the genetic material in each of our cells or, DNA as although identical twins can share parts of the same DNA they still won’t have similar finger prints. This allows police and detectives to identify each person individually from a simple process

Biometrics, which refers to identifying an individual based on his or her physiological or behavioral characteristics.

Fingerprints, known for each person to have unique ones, are made of a series of ridges and furrows on the

Every time somebody touches something, they leave behind a unique signature that forever links them to that object. This link is their fingerprints, which are unique to every person, for no two people have the same set, not even family members or identical twins. Palms and toes also leave prints behind, but these are far less commonly found during crime scene investigations. Therefore, fingerprints provide an identification process that is applicable to background checks, biometric security, mass disaster identification, and most importantly, crime scene investigations. Fingerprints are so differentiated because they are made up of distinct patterns of ridges and furrows on the fingers. The ridges are the “raised” portions of the prints, and the furrows are the “recessed” portions. This perceived uniqueness has led some people to falsely accept fingerprint analysis as absolute scientific fact. Although overall fingerprints are reliable, there are definitely situations where their accuracy can come into question.

Biometrics is used in many places and there is a bright future for them. Coca Cola has recently replaced time card system with hand scanning machines. Finger print scanners are being used in many states of the US. They have been used to trace social welfare fraud. An iris pattern identification system is being used in Cook County, Illinois to ensure that right people are released from jail. ATM machines have been installed with finger scanners to prevent theft and fraud in Indiana (Jain, 2005).