Adermatoglyphia: Barriers to Biometric Identification and the Need for a Standardized Alternative

Arguably, fingerprinting is the single most widely utilized method for individual identification and authentication (I&A). Dermatoglyphics form a vital portion of mass data collection, biometric scrutiny, and verification. Adermatoglyphia, or simply, loss of fingerprints attributed to a medical cause, represents a taxing situation for such biometric scrutiny systems requiring a fingerprint scan as a mandatory phase in I&A procedure. The scenario can be extremely debilitating for the adermatoglyphia patients, especially when the condition is permanent or irreversible. This article reviews different causes of adermatoglyphia, the challenge it poses to biometric identification, and the potential substitute modalities for fingerprinting technology. These modalities can function as a backup program for biometric surveillance in both medical and non-medical settings under circumstances when the fingerprinting method fails to comply.