AI overview
A fingerprint is the unique pattern of ridges and whorls found on the skin of a person's fingertips. It matters because these patterns are distinctive to each individual and remain largely unchanged throughout their lifetime, making them useful for identifying people in forensic investigations and security applications.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
Article
41 sectionsContents
- Biology
- Genetics
- Classification systems
- {{anchor|Dactyloscopy}}Fingerprint identification
- Fingerprinting techniques
- Exemplar
- Latent
- Capture and detection
- Live scan devices
- Fingerprinting on cadavers
- Latent fingerprint detection
- Forensic laboratories
- Limitations and implications in a forensic context
- Crime scene investigations
- Detection of drug use
- Police force databases
- Validity
- Professional certification
- History
- Antiquity and the medieval period
- Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries
- 19th century
- 20th century
- Use of fingerprints in schools
- Absence or mutilation of fingerprints
- Fingerprint verification
- Patterns
- Fingerprint features
- Fingerprint sensors
- Consumer electronics login authentication
- Algorithms
- Pre-processing
- Pattern-based (or image-based) algorithms
- In other species
- In fiction
- Mark Twain
- Crime fiction
- Film and television
- See also
- References
- External links
thumb|A fingerprint
A fingerprint is an impression left by the friction ridges of a human finger. The recovery of partial fingerprints from a crime scene is an important method of forensic science. Moisture and grease on a finger result in fingerprints on surfaces such as glass or metal. Deliberate impressions of entire fingerprints can be obtained by ink or other substances transferred from the peaks of friction ridges on the skin to a smooth surface such as paper. Fingerprint records normally contain impressions from the pad on the last joint of fingers and thumbs, though fingerprint cards also typically record portions of lower joint areas of the fingers.