Loops and Whorls into Bits and Bytes: How One System Matches Prints

Thanks to recent technological advances, fingerprints no longer have to be manually recorded with ink and then laboriously compared against actual files of other prints. Prints can now be captured in a flash with optical scanners linked to personal computers, and then compared to millions of records in a fraction of the time previously required. To illustrate how one version of the new technology works, the graphic designer superimposed angle and distance formulas over an actual fingerprint, highlighting the specific areas of minutiae that are tracked for identification. When the beginning and end points of ridges on each set of prints are plotted and multiplied, these formulas generate a unique numeric code that is easily matched by computer.