“Biometrics” refers generally to the statistical analysis of characteristics of living bodies. One category of biometrics includes “biometric identification,” which commonly operates under one of two modes to provide automatic identification of people or to verify purported identities of people. Biometric sensing technologies measure the physical features or behavioral characteristics of a person and compare those features to similar prerecorded measurements to determine whether there is a match. Physical features that are commonly used for biometric identification include faces, irises, hand geometry, vein structure, and fingerprint patterns, which is the most prevalent of all biometric-identification features. Current methods for analyzing collected fingerprints include optical, capacitive, radio-frequency, thermal, ultrasonic, and several other less common techniques.
Most existing fingerprint sensors rely on relatively high-quality contact between the finger and the sensor to obtain images. Obtaining adequate contact is both finicky and time-consuming because of factors related to individual characteristics of users of the sensors, the quality of the skin, and environmental variability. Ease of consistent fingerprint capture limits the effectiveness and scope of applications that utilize fingerprint biometrics for identity management.