fingerprint recognition technology is based on modern science and technology and algorithms, but in historical costume dramas, we often see the plot of "pressing fingerprints" when signing documents or pleading guilty. This is the ancients used fingerprints to identify a person's identity.
However, there was no such advanced fingerprint recognition technology in ancient times. What can "press the fingerprint" verify? What is the fingerprint recognition technology of
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The skin on the surface of human palms, fingers, feet and toes has many uneven patterns, and these patterns will form various patterns, which are palm prints and fingerprints. The patterns, breakpoints and intersections on each person's palms and fingers are different, which means that everyone's palm prints and fingerprints are unique. Fingerprint recognition technology is to verify a person's true identity based on the uniqueness of human palm prints and fingerprints.
Fingerprint recognition technology is a type of biometric technology . In addition to fingerprints and palm prints, human faces, pronunciations, iris , retina, skeleton, etc. are also unique, and will not change throughout your life. Therefore, biometric technology also includes facial recognition, pronunciation recognition, etc., but fingerprint recognition is the most widely used and most mature traditional biometric technology.
Application of ancient fingerprints
Modern Fingerprint recognition system was born in the 1980s. In 1880, a British doctor pointed out in a book that human fingerprints will leave marks on objects such as glasses, and these marks can become important evidence for solving cases. 100 years later, British scientists formally encoded human fingerprints, thus giving birth to a modern fingerprint recognition system. In fact, China is the earliest country in the world to use fingerprint recognition technology. Archaeologists found clear ancient fingerprint patterns on pottery unearthed from on the Banpo site. This shows that our ancestors began to study and apply fingerprints more than 6,000 years ago.
In ancient my country, the cultural level is relatively low, and there are very few people who read and read. Many people are illiterate and cannot even write their own names. The only ones who can prove their identity are palm prints or fingerprints. Therefore, people generally need to sign documents or prove the authenticity of what they say, they will press their handprints or seals.
In the pre-Qin period, the text was written on bamboo slips, and many important documents of the government needed to be kept confidential. So, in order to ensure that the information in the files is not leaked, the usual method is to roll up the bamboo slips first, then seal the mouth with clay, then stamp the clay, or press the seal on the sealed person's handprint. Although the ancient fingerprint recognition technology was not as advanced as it is now, such confidentiality methods were very effective at that time. If you find that the seal or fingerprint on the clay is different from the initial state, it means that the bamboo slips have been opened and the secrets in the file have been leaked.
How to use fingerprints to judge cases in ancient times?
Chinese Tang Dynasty scholar Jia Gongyan was the first person in the world to do fingerprint identification. During the Song Dynasty period, Song Ci , known as the "founder of the world's forensic ", began to use fingerprint comparison to find criminals and handle cases. He was the first person in the world to use fingerprints to solve cases. The " Xunyi Lu " written by him recorded the methods and cases of using fingerprints to determine cases. At that time, people had discovered that human fingerprints were unique and stable. Generally speaking, fingerprints would not change with the age of people and the changes in the environment. Just compare the two sets of fingerprints and carefully observe the patterns, breakpoints and intersections on the fingerprints, and you can determine whether it is the fingerprint of the same person. When searching for the criminal and judging the case, just compare the suspect's fingerprint with the fingerprint reserved by the government to determine whether he is the murderer.
However, sometimes the fingerprints left by the criminal at the crime scene are not complete and cannot be compared with the complete fingerprints reserved by the government. What should I do? Our ancestors were very smart and solved this problem with a simple and effective method.That is to press the suspect's fingerprint and the fingerprint obtained at the crime scene on two pieces of paper, then stack the two pieces of paper together, then tear them from the middle at any angle, and cover the paper with half of the fingerprint on the complete fingerprint. If the pattern of the half fingerprint just matches the pattern of the complete fingerprint, it means that the suspect is likely to be a criminal. This is the ancient method of verifying fingerprints. Through this fingerprint comparison method, many unjust and wrong cases have been reduced.
Although the accuracy of ancient fingerprint verification technology is not as high as it is now, our ancestors used fingerprint recognition technology to determine cases, which was nearly 1,000 years earlier than those of Western countries such as , , which is enough to show that our ancestors had super high wisdom.
