Theory 081/Law & Forensic Science
Fingerprints Need Minutiae Margin
The claim
Fingerprint identification error is set by the ratio of usable minutiae to distortion, so a clean print with few features can be less reliable than a smudged one with many.
01The mechanism
Matching requires enough features to overcome elastic distortion; the ratio sets the discriminative margin.
02Predictions
- P1Error should track the ratio.
- P2Minutiae count alone should mispredict.
03Refutation
Error tracking minutiae count would remove the distortion term.