The term biometrics is used to designate a series of technologies and statistical analyses, whose purpose is to uniquely recognize human beings, based on some of their physical traits, such as fingerprints, face, retina, etc.
The term biometrics comes from the Greek words bio meaning life and metron meaning measure.
We invite you to continue reading in the following pages some basic aspects of fingerprint biometrics technology:
What is a fingerprint?
It is a characteristic of the fingers of human beings that contains unique and non-transferable information that identifies each person.
In order to study this information, its basic characteristics must be known:
In the fingerprint essentially we find the nucleus which is the central part of the fingerprint, ridges which are the protuberances in the form of curved lines, and finally the terminations and bifurcations of these ridges.
The terminations and bifurcations of the ridges are called minutiae of the fingerprint. It is these minutiae that determine the characterization of a fingerprint and its quality for full identification.
Fingerprint Structure
In a fingerprint three areas are discriminated, namely: Nuclear area, which is near the nucleus or center of the fingerprint; marginal area located above the nuclear area; and the basilar area which is located below the nuclear area.
Fingerprint structure
The figure below highlights three parts of the footprint, the core which is the highest point of the inner cycle, and delta which is the intersection of the three areas.
Fingerprint core and delta
One of the measures that discriminate a footprint is the number of ridges between the core and the delta.
Number of ridges between core and delta