Fingerprint facts for kids

A fingerprint created by the friction ridge structure

A fingerprint is a trace of a human finger left on a surface. Human fingers have small structures on them (like mountains and valleys). These structures are unique in every human; they can be used as means of identification.

There are many different ways to take fingerprints. Forensic scientists use these techniques to identify a person.

Nowadays have been discussion about using fingerprints to identify a person also with electronic devices.

Types

Before computerization, manual filing systems were used in large fingerprint repositories. Manual classification systems were based on the general ridge patterns of several or all fingers (such as the presence or absence of circular patterns). This allowed the filing and retrieval of paper records in large collections based on friction ridge patterns alone. The most popular systems used the pattern class of each finger to form a key (a number) to assist lookup in a filing system.

In the Henry system of classification, there are three basic fingerprint patterns: loop, whorl, and arch, which constitute 60–65%, 30–35%, and 5% of all fingerprints respectively.

Radial loops start on the thumb-side of the finger, the side closer to the radius. Whorls may also have sub-group classifications including plain whorls, accidental whorls, double loop whorls, peacock's eye, composite, and central pocket loop whorls.

Other common fingerprint patterns include the tented arch, the plain arch, and the central pocket loop.

Related pages

• Face detection

Images for kids

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  The friction ridges on a finger

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  Exemplar prints on paper using ink

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  Fingerprint being scanned

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  3D fingerprint

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  Use of fine powder and brush to reveal latent fingerprints

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  Fingerprint dusting of a burglary scene

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  A city fingerprint identification room

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  Latent fingerprint analysis process

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  Nine fingerprint patterns identified by Jan Evangelista Purkyně

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  Fingerprints taken by William Herschel 1859/60

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  Fingerprints used instead of signatures on an Indian legal document of 1952

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  Female clerical employees of the Los Angeles Police Department being fingerprinted and photographed in 1928

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  The fingerprint sensor of a Lenovo ThinkPad T440p, released in 2013

See also

In Spanish: Huella dactilar para niños