motion which called on the uk government to conduct a full and open consultation with stakeholders about the use of biometrics in schools, secured the support of 85 members of parliament (early day motion 686). following the establishment in the united kingdom of a conservative and liberal democratic coalition government in may 2010, the uk id card scheme was scrapped. serious concerns about the security implications of using conventional biometric templates in schools have been raised by a number of leading it security experts, one of whom has voiced the opinion that "it is absolutely premature to begin using 'conventional biometrics' in schools". the vendors of biometric systems claim that their products bring benefits to schools such as improved reading skills, decreased wait times in lunch lines and increased revenues. they do not cite independent research to support this view. one education specialist wrote in 2007: "i have not been able to find a single piece of published research which suggests that the use of biometrics in schools promotes healthy eating or improves reading skills amongst children... there is absolutely no evidence for such claims". the ottawa police in canada have advised parents who fear their children may be kidnapped to fingerprint their children. absence or mutilation of fingerprints a very rare medical condition, adermatoglyphia, is characterized by the absence of fingerprints. affected persons have completely smooth fingertips, palms, toes and soles, but no other medical signs or symptoms. a 2011 study indicated that adermatoglyphia is caused by the improper expression of the protein smarcad1. the condition has been called immigration delay disease by the researchers describing it, because the congenital lack of fingerprints causes delays when affected persons attempt to prove their identity while traveling. only five families with this condition had been described as of 2011. people with naegeli–franceschetti–jadassohn syndrome and dermatopathia pigmentosa reticularis, which are both forms of ectodermal dysplasia, also have no fingerprints. both of these rare genetic syndromes produce other signs and symptoms as well, such as thin, brittle hair. criminal alvin karpis had his fingerprints surgically removed in 1933 the anti-cancer medication capecitabine may cause the loss of fingerprints. swelling of the fingers, such as that caused by bee stings, will in some cases cause the temporary disappearance of fingerprints, though they will return when the swelling recedes. since the elasticity of skin decreases with age, many senior citizens have fingerprints that are difficult to capture. the ridges get thicker; the height between the top of the ridge and the bottom of the furrow gets narrow, so there is less prominence. fingerprints can be erased permanently and this can potentially be used by criminals to reduce their chance of conviction. erasure can be achieved in a variety of ways including simply burning the fingertips, using acids and advanced techniques such as plastic surgery. john dillinger burned his fingers with acid, but prints taken during a previous arrest and upon death still exhibited almost complete relation to one another. fingerprint verification ridge ending bifurcation short ridge (dot) fingerprints can be captured as graphical ridge and valley patterns. because of their uniqueness and permanence, fingerprints emerged as the most widely used biometric identifier in the 2000s. automated fingerprint verification systems were developed to meet the needs of law enforcement and their use became more widespread in civilian applications. despite being deployed more widely, reliable automated fingerprint verification remained a challenge and was extensively researched in the context of pattern recognition and image processing. the uniqueness of a fingerprint can be established by the overall pattern of ridges and valleys, or the logical ridge discontinuities known as minutiae. in the 2000s minutiae features were considered the most discriminating and reliable feature of a fingerprint. therefore, the recognition of minutiae features became the most common basis for automated fingerprint verification. the most widely used minutiae features used for automated fingerprint verification were the ridge ending and the ridge bifurcation. patterns the three basic patterns of fingerprint ridges are the arch, loop, and whorl: arch: the ridges enter from one side of the finger, rise in the center forming an arc, and then exit the other side of the finger. loop: the ridges enter from one side of a finger, form a curve, and then exit on that same side. whorl: ridges form circularly around a central point on the finger. scientists have found that family members often share the same general fingerprint patterns, leading to the belief that these patterns are inherited. minutiae features features of fingerprint ridges, called minutiae, include: ridge ending: the abrupt end of a ridge bifurcation: a single ridge dividing in two short or independent ridge: a ridge that commences, travels a short distance and then ends island or dot: a single small ridge inside a short ridge or ridge ending that is not connected to all other ridges lake or ridge enclosure: a single ridge that bifurcates and reunites shortly afterward to continue as a single ridge spur: a bifurcation with a short ridge branching off a longer ridge bridge or crossover: a short ridge that runs between two parallel ridges delta: a y-shaped ridge meeting core: a circle in the ridge pattern fingerprint sensors a fingerprint sensor is an electronic device used to capture a digital image of the fingerprint pattern. the captured image is called a live scan. this live scan is digitally processed to create a biometric template (a collection of extracted features) which is stored and used for matching. many technologies have been used including optical, capacitive, rf, thermal, piezoresistive, ultrasonic, piezoelectric, and mems. optical scanners take a visual image of the fingerprint using a digital camera. capacitive or cmos scanners use capacitors and thus electrical current to form an image of the fingerprint. ultrasound fingerprint scanners use high frequency sound waves to penetrate the epidermal (outer) layer of the skin. thermal scanners sense the temperature differences on the contact surface, in between fingerprint ridges and valleys. consumer electronics login authentication the fingerprint sensor of a lenovo thinkpad t440p, released in 2013 since 2000 electronic fingerprint readers have been introduced as consumer electronics security applications. fingerprint sensors could be used for login authentication and the identification of computer users. however, some less sophisticated sensors have been discovered to be vulnerable to quite simple methods of deception, such as fake fingerprints cast in gels. in 2006, fingerprint sensors gained popularity in the laptop market. built-in sensors in laptops, such as thinkpads, vaio, hp pavilion and elitebook laptops, and others also double as motion detectors for document scrolling, like the scroll wheel. two of the first smartphone manufacturers to integrate fingerprint recognition into their phones were motorola with the atrix 4g in 2011 and apple with the iphone 5s on september 10, 2013. one month after, htc launched the one max, which also included fingerprint recognition. in april 2014, samsung released the galaxy s5, which integrated a fingerprint sensor on the home button. following the release of the iphone 5s model, a group of german hackers announced on september 21, 2013, that they had bypassed apple's new touch id fingerprint sensor by photographing a fingerprint from a glass surface and using that captured image as verification. the spokesman for the group stated: "we hope that this finally puts to rest the illusions people have about fingerprint biometrics. it is plain stupid to use something that you can't change and that you leave everywhere every day as a security token." in september 2015, apple included a new version of the fingerprint scanner in the iphone home button with the iphone 6s. the use of the touch id fingerprint scanner was optional and could be configured to unlock the screen or pay for mobile apps purchases. since december 2015, cheaper smartphones with fingerprint recognition have been released, such as the $100 umi fair. samsung introduced fingerprint sensors to its mid-range a series smartphones in 2014. by 2017 hewlett packard, asus, huawei, lenovo and apple were using fingerprint readers in their laptops. synaptics says the securepad sensor is now available for oems to start building into their laptops. in 2018, synaptics revealed that their in-display fingerprint sensors would be featured on the new vivo x21 ud smartphone. this was the first mass-produced fingerprint sensor to be integrated into the entire touchscreen display, rather than as a separate sensor. algorithms matching algorithms are used to compare previously stored templates of fingerprints against candidate fingerprints for authentication purposes. in order to do this either the original image must be directly compared with the candidate image or certain features must be compared. pre-processing pre-processing enhances the quality of an image by filtering and removing extraneous noise. the minutiae-based algorithm is only effective with 8-bit gray scale fingerprint images. one reason for this is that an 8-bit gray fingerprint image is a fundamental base when converting the image to a 1-bit image with value 1 for ridges and value 0 for furrows. this process allows for enhanced edge detection so the fingerprint is revealed in high contrast, with the ridges highlighted in black and the furrows in white. to further optimize the input image's quality, two more steps are required: minutiae extraction and false minutiae removal. the minutiae extraction is carried out by applying a ridge-thinning algorithm that removes redundant pixels of ridges. as a result, the thinned ridges of the fingerprint image are marked with a unique id to facilitate the conduction of further operations. after the minutiae extraction, the false minutiae removal is carried out. the lack of the amount of ink and the cross link among the ridges could cause false minutiae that led to inaccuracy in fingerprint recognition process. pattern-based (or image-based) algorithms pattern based algorithms compare the basic fingerprint patterns (arch, whorl, and loop) between a previously stored template and a candidate fingerprint. this requires that the images can be aligned in the same orientation. to do this, the algorithm finds a central point in the fingerprint image and centers on that. in a pattern-based algorithm, the template contains the type, size, and orientation of patterns within the aligned fingerprint image. the candidate fingerprint image is graphically compared with the template to determine the degree to which they match. in other species some other animals have evolved their own unique prints, especially those whose lifestyle involves climbing or grasping wet objects; these include many primates, such as gorillas and chimpanzees, australian koalas, and aquatic mammal species such as the north american fisher. according to one study, even with an electron microscope, it can be quite difficult to distinguish between the fingerprints of a koala and a human. in fiction mark twain mark twain's memoir life on the mississippi (1883), notable mainly for its account of the author's time on the river, also recounts parts of his later life and includes tall tales and stories allegedly told to him. among them is an involved, melodramatic account of a murder in which the killer is identified by a thumbprint. twain's novel pudd'nhead wilson, published in 1893, includes a courtroom drama that turns on fingerprint identification. crime fiction the use of fingerprints in crime fiction has, of course, kept pace with its use in real-life detection. sir arthur conan doyle wrote a short story about his celebrated sleuth sherlock holmes which features a fingerprint: "the norwood builder" is a 1903 short story set in 1894 and involves the discovery of a bloody fingerprint which helps holmes to expose the real criminal and free his client. the british detective writer r. austin freeman's first thorndyke novel the red thumb-mark was published in 1907 and features a bloody fingerprint left on a piece of paper together with a parcel of diamonds inside a safe-box. these become the center of a medico-legal investigation led by dr. thorndyke, who defends the accused whose fingerprint matches that on the paper, after the diamonds are stolen. film and television in the television series bonanza (1959–1973) the chinese character hop sing uses his knowledge of fingerprints to free little joe from a murder charge. the 1997 movie men in black required agent j to remove his ten fingerprints by putting his hands on a metal ball, an action deemed necessary by the mib agency to remove the identity of its agents. in the 2009 science fiction movie cold souls, a mule