Unwarping Smudged Fingerprints in Record Time

De-smudgifying fingerprints:

Gurus at the University of Warwick have developed a system that "identifies partial, distorted, scratched, smudged, or otherwise warped fingerprints in just a few seconds." The process is garnering attention thanks to its ability to spit out results in the blink of an eye after it "unwarps any fingerprint that has been distorted and creates a clear, digital representation that can then be mapped onto an image space of all other prints held on a database."

Reportedly, researchers have already established the Warwick Warp spinoff company to bring the technology to market, and they're looking in the commercial access control, financial transaction authorization and possibly even ID card / border control segments for opportunities.

Here's more:

Though it's not the company's focus, the Warp technology could have applications in forensics. After all, the system is designed to work with the kinds of non-ideal prints that unintentional situations tend to generate. The ability of the software to work with partial or smudged prints could increase the number of latent prints that investigators can use among those they find in the field.

Here's Charlie on NUMB3RS explaining how it works: