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I doubt that there is an algorithm that can consistently turn any good image of the same fingerprint into the same stream of bytes.
by ryan-c 11y ago
I doubt that there is an algorithm that can consistently turn any good image of the same fingerprint into the same stream of bytes.
- computator 11y agoThere certainly are such algorithms. The Henry Classification System is one such algorithm and it's been used for more than century[1]. Even in the 1940s and 50s, before digital computers, you could fingerprint a suspect and through a manual application of the algorithm obtain a unique ID ("the same stream of bytes" as you say). You could then do a look-up to see if he had a criminal record. [1] To be precise, the Henry system uses all ten prints, but single finger classifications also exist. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Classification_System https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Classification_System
- ryan-c 11y agoThe Henry classification system seems to be useful only as an index to reduce the number of fingerprints a human investigator needs to compare against. It looks like it is expected to frequently have collisions.