Fingerprint Scanner

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What Does Fingerprint Scanner Mean?

A fingerprint scanner is a type of technology that identifies and authenticates the fingerprints of an individual in order to grant or deny access to a computer system or a physical facility.

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It is a type of biometric security technology that utilizes the combination of hardware and software techniques to identify the fingerprint scans of an individual.

Techopedia Explains Fingerprint Scanner

A fingerprint scanner typically works by first recording fingerprint scans of all authorized individuals for a particular system or facility. These scans are saved within a database. The user requiring access puts their finger on a hardware scanner, which scans and copies the input from the individual and looks for any similarity within the already-stored scans. If there is a positive match, the individual is granted access.

Fingerprint scanners most commonly use an individual’s thumbprint as identification.

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Margaret Rouse
Technology expert
Margaret Rouse
Technology expert

Margaret is an award-winning writer and educator known for her ability to explain complex technical topics to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles in the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret’s idea of ​​a fun day is to help IT and business professionals to learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.