Why Fingerprints? (2 of 5) (IMAGE)

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Why Fingerprints? (2 of 5)

Caption

This image shows a fingerprint from contact with a flat surface. The contact occurs only along the summits of the epidermal ridges. This contact pattern results in a particular filtering of tactile information during active exploration of a surface. This image accompanied the report, "The Role of Fingerprints in the Coding of Tactile Information Probed with a Biomimetic Sensor," by Dr. Scheibert et. al. appearing in the Jan. 30, 2009, issue of Science.

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Image copyright <i>Science</i>-AAAS

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