3-D Scanning Brings the Future of Fingerprinting

A new touchless fingerprinting system is faster and more accurate than rolling your fingertips on an ink pad

By Jeremy Hsu Posted 09.30.2009 at 4:16 pm 7 Comments

Distance Fingerprinting It's not ET, but it'll capture 3-D fingerprints with no touching necessary University of Kentucky

Fingerprinting with ink or even sensor plates poses a chore for everyone involved, except possibly 10-year-old kids. But that could change with a 3-D system that projects light patterns onto a finger and analyzes the image within a second.

The method works by beaming a series of striped lines so that they wrap around a finger. A 1.4 megapixel camera captures the lines at almost 1,000 pixels per inch, and creates a highly detailed 3-D map of the fingerprint ridges and valleys.

Technology Review reports that the new device has proved both more efficient and accurate than traditional 2-D fingerprinting. Ink fingerprinting has always been a painstaking and none-too-accurate process. Even modern scanners with glass plates often require several tries, and can take several minutes to capture prints from all 10 fingers.

This effort by University of Kentucky researchers represents one of several government-funded efforts to develop 3-D fingerprinting technology. The team hopes to eventually reducing processing time to less than 0.1 seconds, and scan all 10 fingers at all once -- a likely boon for both customs agents and the FBI in the near future.

Such fingerprinting won't necessarily help forensics teams in the field, even if law enforcement databases improve based on the new technology. But there's always more CSI-style methods waiting to lift fingerprints left behind by perps.

[via Technology Review]

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7 Comments

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dontbother

09/30/09 at 8:44 pm

just to be clear, inkless fingerprint scanners have been around for a while and the scanners used at U.S. embassies overseas are pretty quick; they take maybe 30 seconds to get all 10 prints.

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animemaster

09/30/09 at 10:24 pm

I'm scared that if it gets too easy they will have people scanned more often. Getting printed makes me feel like my privacy has been invaded just a bit more than I would prefer.

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poopshoop

09/30/09 at 10:44 pm

if it doesnt become too invasive and too much a part of our daily lives, it wouldn't be too much of a hassle

but I can see that these things would definitely be able to track every individual's movements more accurately, in which case, I would agree with animemaster

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Cookiees453

09/30/09 at 10:47 pm

Your privacy is already invaded every time you go outside. Satellites orbiting our Earth can take pictures and videos of you with much ease, and they can zoom in to spot a freckle on your face. You're also being picked up by many webcams and other cameras around towns and cities. If you've been to an Airport, chances are that your face is stored in some security database, and most personal information can be taken from a person through the internet. And this is just the icing on the cake. Complete privacy is just an illusion, it doesn't exist anymore, unless perhaps you're living in the jungle on a tropical island. I wouldn't be too worried about this new fingerprinting system =)

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Mycellium

10/01/09 at 10:17 am

Thats right, certainly less invasive than the RF ID chip implants in the works for your social welfare and safety coming to you circa 2011. I'm just kidding. Or am I?

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Oakspar77777

10/01/09 at 2:56 pm

Of course you are mycellium, they are not online anywhere near that soon, but they are coming.

Oh, and they will be linked to your government run bank/credit account for your convience.

Improved fingerprint ID is really only an issue for those who commit or plan to commit crimes. I don't mind being fingerprinted at all.

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extremechiton

10/01/09 at 10:31 pm

they already have 3-d scanners.

now they finnaly decide to try to scan a finger?