Are Fingerprints Unique?

By 360 Biometrics

fingeprints_joke_1

Whenever I meet a new client, I always get asked the question, “Are fingerprints unique?” and before I can reply someone else replies, “Yes, they are absolute unique, I have heard that even the twins fingerprints are not similar and neither the fingerprints of two fingers of the same hand.”

While I agree with the answer, I am not sure about the accuracy of “Yes, they are absolutely unique” part. The reason is that we are about 6 billion of us. Assume that all 6 billion people have 10 fingers, that would make 60 billion fingerprints! Nobody has collected 60 billion fingerprints, matched against one another and proved the uniqueness! Does that mean that the fingerprints are not unique then? Well, no that would also be incorrect, because, fingerprints have been used for identification since 100 years now and we have yet to find 2 fingers with similar fingerprints.

The correct answer to this question is the probability of 2 people having similar fingerprints is very low.

Having said this, in the world of automation, fingerprints are never considered as unique! Here are some of the reasons:

fingerprint_scanner

1. When we capture fingerprints using a fingerprint sensor, we only capture a part of the prints. In the case of the flat prints, we miss the top and the side area of the finger. In case of rolled prints, we miss the top area. It could be possible that the uniqueness might be in these missing areas that we are not capturing.

2. The fingerprint are captured using a fingerprint sensor. This sensor is an electronic device, which will have an error rate. This means that there will be some loss of data and even an introduction of some noisy data bits.

3. Next, the fingerprints are processed by a fingerprint recognition algorithm where the fingerprints are converted into a template and then matched against existing templates. These templates contain data points on a finger that are of interest. They are supposed to be “unique” for each finger and therefore an unique representation of a finger (or a person).

The fingerprint recognition algorithm is developed from a sample data set, under certain conditions and assumptions. There is always a possibility that the sample set may not have all the patterns, the assumptions might be incorrect, or certain conditions, overlooked. Furthermore, fingerprint algorithm is a software and well, doesn’t all software programs have bugs?

When you some up these error rates, the possibility of two templates (or fingerprints) being similar goes up, especially when you have thousands of fingerprints in the database. When the templates taken from 2 separate fingerprints matches, it is called “false accept”, more on this later…

So does all this mean that fingerprints are not a good biometric identifier?

Fingerprint biometrics have been used for a very long time now. They are more reliable than most of the technologies that we have today. All technologies have pros and cons, so does a biometric-based solution. There are couple of options that you could use to overcome these problems. If you have over 50K users in the database, you could use a multi-biometric identification solution, or if you need to use the biometric technology to identify children between the ages 4 to 10, then you might be better off using multi-spectral sensors.

The right solution depends on the application. For you to succeed in your biometric implementation, it is best to hire a biometric solution provider who is well-versed with the biometric technology, understands your vertical and can help you to find a right solutions that fits your need.

Source of the 1st image: www.clpex.com/Articles/TheDetail/100-199/TheDetail115.htm

Tags: Biometrics, Fingerprints, Fringerprint Uniqueness, Identification

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 22nd, 2009 at 2:09 pm and is filed under Biometrics, Fingerprints, Identification. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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