This seminar report discusses fingerprint sensors and their applications. It provides background on fingerprint identification and classification, then describes the main types of fingerprint sensors including capacitive, optical, thermal, pressure, radio frequency, and ultrasonic. It explains how fingerprint sensors work to capture and analyze fingerprint images. The report also outlines key applications of fingerprint sensors such as border control, driver's licenses, device unlocking, and biometric door locks. Finally, it discusses future applications involving linking fingerprint authentication to government identification cards and ATM security.

1. Seminar Report on:
FINGER PRINT SENSOR AND
ITS APPLICATIONS
Presented by:
ARNAB PODDER (Roll No. - 07)
ATUL RAJ (Roll No. - 08)
Under the supervision of –
Prof. Jayjeet Sarkar
2017
Department of Electronics and Instrumentation Engineering
Academy of Technology
Adisaptagram, Hooghly, West Bengal,
712121

2. INDEX
Contents Page No.
1. Introduction…………………………….………………..1
2. History………………………………….………………..2
3. Working……………………...………….……………….3
4. Block Diagram……………...………….………………..3
5. About Finger Prints…………………….……………….4
6. Types of Finger Prints………………….………………5
7. Types of Finger Print Sensor………….…………….6-9
8. Application of Finger Print Sensor……...……………10
9. Future Scope of Finger Print Sensor…..…………….11
10. Advantages……………………………………………..12
11. Disadvantages……………………………………...…..13
12. Conclusion………………………………………………14
13. Bibliography……………………………..………………15

3. Certificate
This is to certify that the work presented in this Seminar Report has
been prepared by –
ARNAB PODDER (Roll No. - 07) and ATUL RAJ (Roll No. -08) u under the
supervision of Prof. Jayjeet Sarkar, being Sixth Semester B.Tech,
Electronics and Instrumentation Engineering student of Academy of
Technology, Adisaptagram.
…………………… ………………………
Prof. Jayjeet Sarkar Prof. Hiranmoy Mandal
(MENTOR) (HEAD OF DEPARTMENT)
Examined by-
…………………………….. ………………………………
…………………………….. ………………………………
(I)

4. STATEMENT BY THE CANDIDATE
We hereby state that this technical report has been prepared
by us is a record of our presentation on this topic. The report is
being submitted to fulfil the requirements of Course EI681 of the
curriculum of Academy of Technology, Hooghly, India, 712121.
……………………… ………………………
ARNAB PODDER ATUL RAJ
Roll No. - 07 Roll No. - 08
6th
Semester 6th
Semester
(EIE) (EIE)
(II)

5. AKNOWLEDGEMENT
It is our privilege to express our sincerest regards to our project coordinator,
Prof. Basab Chatterjee, and mentor Prof. Jayjeet Sarkar, for their valuable inputs,
able guidance, encouragement, whole-hearted cooperation and constructive
criticism throughout the duration of our project. We deeply express our sincere
thanks to our Head of Department Prof. Hiranmoy Mandal for encouraging and
allowing us to present the project on the topic “FINGER PRINT SENSOR AND
ITS APPLICATION” at our department premises for the partial fulfilment of the
requirements leading to the award of B.Tech degree. We take this opportunity to
thank all our lecturers who have directly or indirectly helped in our project. Last
but not the least we express our thanks to our friends for their cooperation and
support.
(III)

6. ABSTRACT
Fingerprint recognition is very popular in biometric system as fingerprint remains
unchanged throughout the life of a person. Fingerprints are unique in nature and
fingerprints of one person are different from another person’s fingerprints. It can be
used in access control mechanism and for attendance system. Fingerprint images
can be captured by different methods but image taken by an optical scanner are of
the highest quality and reliable too. Notes about the ridges, loops, and spirals of
fingerprints were first made in 1686 by Marcello Malpighi. However, it was not until
1880 that fingerprints were recognized as a means of personal identification by Henry
Faulds, who also identified a first ever fingerprint. The first book about fingerprints
was published in 1888 by Sir Francis Galton, and was titled simply Fingerprints.
Galton established the first classification system for fingerprints and was the first to
assert that no two prints are the same, or that the odds of two prints being identical
were about 1 in 64 billion. Later, the Henry Classification System was developed in
1901 by Sir Edward Henry, and today forms the basis for print recognition in most
English speaking countries. This system categorized the ridge patterns into three
groups: loops, whorls, and arches. Fingerprinting was soon introduced in prisons,
army and widely used for identification by law enforcement. The Federal Bureau of
Investigation collection has millions of fingerprint cards and consists of approximately
70 million fingerprints. Although the main use of prints remains in forensic science
and law enforcement, new uses of fingerprints have been developed.
(IV)

7. Introduction:
Fingerprints are the patterns on the inside and the tips of fingers. The ridges of
skin, also known as friction ridges, together with the valleys between them form
unique patterns on the fingers. Fingerprint analysis is a biometric technique
comparing scanned image of prints with a database of fingerprints. Uniqueness of
prints, and the fact that they do not change during a person's life, form the basis for
fingerprint analysis. The uniqueness of the prints is determined by the minute changes
in local environment during fatal development; therefore, the identical twins
undistinguishable by DNA analysis can be differentiated with fingerprint analysis.
Although the fingerprint pattern remains the same, growth accounts for an
enlargement of the patterns. Additionally, accidents or some diseases may alter
fingerprint patterns
Detection of fingerprints. Presence of pores on the surface of the ridges of the
fingers results in the accumulation of perspiration on the fingertips. This moisture
remains on the surface of the object a person touches, leaving prints. Depending on
the surface touched, prints can be visible to the naked eye (e.g. metal, glass or plastic)
or invisible (paper, cardboard or timber). Prints left on non-porous surfaces such as
metal can be visualized with powders and lifted with tape. In contrast, the prints on
porous objects require special lighting, such as lasers or x rays. There are two major
methods of the identification of fingerprints—comparison of lifted prints and live
scanning. The first method is mainly used in forensics, while the second is used
for authentication purposes (in security applications) and is also slowly becoming a
method for identification at some police stations. A fingerprint is seen on the back of
a wireless device called an "IBIS." It can record a fingerprint in the field, then send the
fingerprint via a wireless connection to be checked against a database.
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8. HISTORY
Early use-
The history of fingerprinting began long before its use in criminal proceedings.
According to historians, Babylonians would press their fingers into wet clay to record
business transactions. The Chinese adapted this system, but held onto its benefit as
a unique identifier, using ink on paper to conduct business transactions. Even
hundreds of years later, the practice was still in use when, in 1858, an
Englishman named Sir William Herschel, then Chief Magistrate of the
Hooghly district in Jungipoor, India, required residents to record their
fingerprints when signing business documents.
Modern Use-
It wasn’t until 1896 when the modern system of fingerprint
identification came to be. Sir Edward Henry, commissioner of the
Metropolitan Police of London, created his own classification system
using the pioneering work of Galton. His system used the now-familiar
whorls, loops, and arches of frictional ridges on the fingertip to identify
individuals. His system, the Henry Classification System, replaced the
Bertillon age system and modern fingerprinting began. So successful
was the technique that Scotland Yard established its own Fingerprint
Bureau in 1901, presenting fingerprint evidence in court for the first time
in 1902. In 1903, the system spread to New York state prisons, further
cementing its usage as an investigatory tool. Unfortunately, the system
was cumbersome. Records had to be compared manually, requiring
hours or days to yield a match, if it was even successful. The Japanese
National Police Agency answered this problem with the advent of
computers in the 1980s. Their system, called the Automated Fingerprint
Identification System (AFIS) allowed for cross-check of millions of prints
simultaneously. Testament to Galton and Henry’s legacy, the digital
utilizes the same identifying characteristics of their late -19th century
system when determining a match. Prior to 1999 FBI’s Criminal Justice
Information Services Division introduced the Integrated AFIS, which
allows for categorization, search, and retrieval of fingerprints from
anywhere in the U.S. in as little as 30 minutes. In addition, the system
displays mug shots and criminal histories for persons in the system.
Approximately 70 million records are in the IAFIS, including 34 million
civil prints. This same system used for employment checks, issuance of
license, and enrolment in social services programs, making it one of the
most used and most valuable tools in the world. And now it can be found
on most of the smart phones.
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9. WORKING:
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, piezo-resistive, ultrasonic, piezoelectric. This is an
overview of some of the more commonly used fingerprint sensor technologies.
There are mainly two types of scanning methods for this technology. Either an optical
or capacitance scanner is used to scan and make a picture of your finger. Though
both the methods produce the same type of image, the making of it is completely
different.
This scanned image is then compared with an earlier existing finger print of yours to
get the correct identity. The comparison is carried out by the processor and the
comparison is made between the valleys and ridges. Though the steps are simple,
very complex algorithms must be carried out to perform this operation. Though your
whole fingerprint is recorded, the computer takes only parts of the print to compare
with other records.
BLOCK DIAGRAM:
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10. ABOUT FINGER PRINTS:
Before going in detail about the technology used, it is very important to know about
the basics of our fingerprints. The basic information about fingerprint is that it is unique
for each person. Even a twin brother will not have the same fingerprint. Thus each
fingerprint is used to store a unique identifiable piece of information. The uniqueness
in each fingerprint is due to the peculiar genetic code of DNA in each person. This
code causes the formation of a different pattern of our fingerprint.
A fingerprint consists of ridges and valleys. They together provide friction for the skin.
The main identification of the skin is based upon the minutiae, which actually is the
location and direction of the ridge endings and splits along a ridge path. The image
shown below represents two types of minutiae as shown in FIG: 1(a)
FIG: 1(a) FIG: 1(b)
The image above [FIG: 1(b)] shows all the other characteristics of a fingerprint. These
characteristics may also be helpful during the process of minutiae extraction. The
unique information used for the identification includes the flow of the friction ridges,
the sequence and also the presence/absence of the individual friction ridge path
features.
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11. TYPES OF FINGER PRINT:
 Five main classes of fingerprints
o Arch [FIG: 2.1]
o Tented Arch [FIG: 2.2]
o Left Loop [FIG: 2.3]
o Right Loop [FIG: 2.4]
o Whorl [FIG: 2.5]
FIG: 2.1 FIG: 2.2
FIG: 2.3
FIG: 2.4 FIG: 2.5
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12. TYPES OF FINGER PRINT SENSOR:
 Capacitive type finger print Sensors:
Capacitive sensors use an array capacitor plates to image the fingerprint. Skin is
conductive enough to provide a capacitive coupling with an individual capacitive
element on the array. Ridges, being closer to the detector, have a higher capacitance
and valleys have a lower capacitance. Some capacitive sensors apply a small voltage
to the finger to enhance the signal and create better image contrast.
Capacitive sensors can be sensitive to electrostatic discharge (shock) but they are
insensitive to ambient lighting and are more resist contamination issues than some
optical designs.
Fig: Capacitive type finger print sensor
 Optical type finger print Sensors:
Optical sensors use arrays of photodiode or phototransistor detectors to convert the
energy in light incident on the detector into electrical charge. The sensor package
usually includes a light-emitting-diode (LED) to illuminate the finger.
There are two detector types used by optical sensors, charge-coupled-devices (CCD)
and CMOS based optical imagers. CCD detectors are sensitive to low light levels and
are capable of making excellent grayscale pictures. However, CCD fabrication is
relatively expensive and neither low-light sensitivity or grayscale imaging are required
for fingerprint recognition. CMOS optical imagers are manufactured in quantity and
can be made with some of the image processing steps built into the chip resulting in
a lower cost.
Optical sensors for fingerprints may be affected by a number of real world factors such
as stray light and surface contamination, possibly even a fingerprint impression left
by a prior user. Common contaminates that deteriorate image quality include oil and
dirt, scratches on the sensor surface, and condensation or ice. Some suppliers have
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13. tried to sidestep the contamination problem by directly taking a 3D image from the
surface of a finger. 3D imaging technology is more hygienic but introduces a whole
new set of problems and was not included in this study.
Fig: Optical type finger print sensor
Fig: Optical type finger print sensor
 Thermal type finger print Sensors:
Thermal sensors use the same pyro-electric material that is used in infrared cameras.
When a finger is presented to the sensor, the fingerprint ridges make contact with the
sensor surface and the contact temperature is measured, the valleys do not make
contact and are not measured. A fingerprint image is created by the skin-temperature
ridges and the ambient temperature measure for valleys. The biggest drawback of
this technique is that the temperature change is dynamic and it only takes about a
tenth of a second for the sensor surface touching ridges and valleys to come to the
same temperature, erasing the fingerprint image. While it can operate over a wide
range of temperatures, if the ambient temperature is close to the finger surface
temperature the sensor requires heating to create a temperature difference.
Fig: Thermal type finger print sensor
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14.  Pressure type finger print Sensors:
Pressure sensing scanners can be made very thin and are often used in electronic
devices. Early pressure sensing scanners had to make a trade-off between durability
and quality because any protective layer on the detector surface would diminish the
contrast of the impression. There are two types of pressure sensing detectors
available, conductive film detectors and micro electro-mechanical devices (MEMS).
Conductive film sensors use a double-layer electrode on flexible films. MEMS is a
newer technology that uses extremely tiny silicon switches on a silicon chip. When a
fingerprint ridge touches a switch, it closes and is detected electronically
Fig: Pressure type finger print sensor
 Low radio frequency (RF) type finger print Sensors:
A low radio frequency (RF) signal is applied to the user’s finger and then read by the
detector array, with each pixel operating like a tiny antenna. The advantage of this
detector is that it reads the fingerprint from the dermal layer underneath the surface
making it less susceptible to damaged or dry fingertips. It basically uses signal
generator.
Fig: low radio frequency (RF) type finger print sensor
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15.  Ultrasonic type finger print Sensors:
Ultrasonic scanners have an advantage of being able to see beneath the skin. This
provides not only verification of a live finger, it provides more information as a
biometric measure. But this technology is slow, expensive, bulky, and too data
intensive for most access control applications
Fig: Ultrasonic type finger print sensor
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16. APPLICATIONS OF FINGER PRINT SENSOR:
 Voter registration and identification
 Border control via passport verification
 Population census by using biometrics
 Driver’s license and professional ID card verification
 Lock/unlock devices and application software
 Secure logins via keyboard modules
 User identification at kiosks
 Biometric door locks
 Credit card security
 Weapon activation
 Theft protection
 Digital payments using ADHAR card verification
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17. FUTURE SCOPE OF FINGER PRINT SENSOR:
Application those provides solutions, support, feedback and problem conclusion.
These all are required to be uniquely identifying in future fingerprint can be a most
important factor for authentication and authorization. The used of UID to test
fingerprint at different places with different application can make it feasible examine
the originality of person presented.
 If the Govt. Election may conduct using UID card, then fake entries can be
avoided.
 If the ATM Machine and Card may connect with the UID card system then only
allowed people would transact money Authenticate by Fingerprint Scanner at
ATM.
 Other Scheme those can take advantage to Fingerprint Scanned Images by
UID are as follow: Indian Post Office, NREGA
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18. ADVANTAGES:
 Others can’t use one’s identity since physical attributes can’t be duplicated like
identity cards.
 It is cheap, fast and easy to setup.
 You can't misplace your fingerprints and it does not change with age or get
affected by any disease.
 It can’t be forgotten since it’s a physical feature.
 Very high accuracy.
 Easy to use.
DISADVANTAGES:
 For some people it is very intrusive, because is still related to criminal
identification.
 It can make mistakes with the dryness or dirty of the finger’s skin, as well as
with the age (is not appropriate with children, because the size of their
fingerprint changes quickly).
 Image captured at 500 dots per inch (dpi). Resolution: 8 bits per pixel. A 500
dpi fingerprint image at 8 bits per pixel demands a large memory space, 240
Kbytes approximately → Compression required (a factor of 10 approximately)
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19. CONCLUSION:
The conclusion of the report is, the Fingerprint Sensor Authentication is the key to
solve many problems related to fake entries and security attacks. There seems to
exits some disadvantages over the advantages for using fingerprint sensor, this is one
reason why such systems are yet not widely used. But the advantages mentioned
above are so important and people want to benefit from them that the disadvantages
will be more and more reduced in future. The fingerprint is the only biometric type
which is very easy to take, handle, and operated using recent developments in Image
Processing. The problems regarding image size in database is not a serious problem
due to cloud computing whereas unlimited data can be stored and transfer moreover
many researches are in process.
The important points concluded are as follows:
 Fingerprint Images are very easy to recognize compared to other
biometric technology because it has specific pattern to classify.
 In case two Fingerprints of different person are matched, then Fingerprints
of other fingers can never be match with other person’s fingerprints. So,
authenticity is very high.
 If the matching techniques discussed above may compose into a single
system then the fingerprint verification results will optimized.
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20. BILBIOGRAPHY:
 GOOGLE.CO.IN
https://www.google.co.in/webhp?sourceid=chrome-
instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=firnger+print+sensor+and+its+application
 CIRCUITS TODAY.COM
http://www.circuitstoday.com/working-of-fingerprint-scanner-2
 360BIOMETRICS.COM
http://www.360biometrics.com/faq/fingerprint_scanners.phpl
 YOUTUBE.IN
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcFYQcYdyu0
 CS.AUCKLAND.AC.NZ
https://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/courses/compsci725s2c/archive/termpapers/bk
aschte.pdf
 BIOMETRIKA.IT
http://www.biometrika.it/eng/wp_fingintro.html
 WIKIPEDIA.ORG
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fingerprint_recognition
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