Arches, Whorls, and Loops


When I got my passport renewed recently, it was the first time they took my fingerprints as part of the process. I am guessing passports now have RFID chips that hold our prints (or similar tech to achieve the same outcome).

It turns out finger prints have been used as far back as Babylon for contracts, and in the 1300’s in China for catching criminals, writes Chantel Tattoli. Surprisingly, the Europeans didn’t know that fingerprints were unique to each individual. As recently as the 1850’s, the British dismissed the Indian practice of inking their finger next to contracts as… superstition! Soon after though, the British started using finger prints to identify criminals. That set off a drive in England to collect finger prints.

When the Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre in 1911, guess who was one of the suspects? Pablo Picasso!
“Picasso cried. He begged forgiveness. He was in possession of two statuettes filched from the museum, but he hadn’t taken her.”
The lead investigator believed Picasso because the single print found on the pane that shielded the painting wasn’t Picasso’s. Right assessment, wrong reason. Back then, they only used the print from a person’s right hand; so if they found a print from someone’s left hand, there was nothing it would match in the records…

The number of finger prints on record exploded after the creation of the FBI. But it was a slow and tedious process to compare prints. It wasn’t until 1967 that the tech was created to scan and compare prints optically. Lest you forget:
“Before DNA technology, the sexiest clues at crime scenes were fingerprints.”
But why are finger prints unique, even among genetically identical twins?
“Fingerprints are formed by friction from touching the walls of our mother’s womb.”

As many of us have seen with Aadhar, not all finger prints are easy to capture:
“In puberty, when hands turn oiler, prints left on surfaces last longer; they become trickier to capture with age, as epidermal ridges harden.”
Another interesting point is that our prints can’t be changed:
“You can erase your physical prints for a time, as my father accidentally did by working with battery acid… Fingerprints grow back. Barring mutilation, they are a biometric for life—even in death.”

And now, this “ancient biometric is now on its second wind”. Get ready to say sayanora to government issued forms of ID, wallets, keys, passwords for phones and ATM’s…

Comments

  1. Ramiah KumarJune 7, 2018 at 1:00 PM

    Some interesting facts. Despite the basic knowledge, even simple enough issues or reasons for them - like why good and lasting finger prints are possible at youthful age and why at old age finger prints are difficult to come by - elude most us.

    I didn't know so far that Pablo Picasso was actually was in possession of two statuettes filched from the museum, and he had the knowledge they were stolen, even if he didn't do the job himself.

    -------

    I hope that within a few decades the basic IDs for all purposes would be derived from finger prints, iris (hope that is the part of the eye used for ID) check of some kind, and also some tangible way of dealing with DNA for many routines, so that the cons and thieves are not going to loot as easily as they do now. Using violence and death threats to steal are a different thing, and they could well be used even if such bio-ID measures become the norm; I am not discussing them here.

    Nevertheless, as the safeguarded get higher, tougher and technologically-terrific, so do the methods of cheating, robbing and outwitting the established safeguards. Ultimately, all we can do is to work out some level of safeguards, and hope for the best.

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