Almost everyone has a fingerprint, and all fingerprints are unique, even those belonging to identical twins. This makes them extremely valuable in verifying the identity of a person. While criminology has long used prints to solve crimes, many other fields are also beginning to use them. Here are three uses of fingerprints.
- To Unlock Your Phone
Most people like to have some kind of security layer to protect their phone from hackers or someone physically accessing the device should it be lost or stolen. The most common way to do this is through an alphabetical or numerical passcode or drawing a pattern. However, as smartphones become more advanced, technologies to read faces and fingerprints are emerging as quicker, safer, and easier ways to securely access your phone.
- For Crossing Borders
Passports have long been known as the key to visiting most other countries from the United States. Many passports now implement biometrics such as stored fingerprints to make traveling even safer. Should you need your fingerprints taken for a passport or other legal document, many fingerprinting Richmond VA services exist throughout the United States.
- To Solve Crimes
When someone is arrested for a crime, their fingerprints are taken and added to a database. This is to make it easier to identify suspects and solve other crimes in the future. When there is a burglary, robbery, homicide, or another type of crime, the scene is often first swept for fingerprints and compared to this database. While DNA evidence has come a long way in the past few decades, fingerprints remain a reliable way to help catch criminals, especially in the absence of hair, saliva, or other DNA evidence left at the crime scene.
Fingerprints have many uses in modern society, and as technology advances, there will only be more uses for these unique identifiers.
The author, Dr. David K Simson is a trained radiation oncologist specializing in advanced radiation techniques such as intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT), image-guided radiotherapy (IGRT), volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) / Rapid Arc, stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT), stereotactic radiotherapy (SRT), stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS). He is also experienced in interstitial, intracavitary, and intraluminal brachytherapy.