How Fingerprints Differ (and Don't) (IMAGE) NYU Tandon School of Engineering Caption The green boxes show the locations of 5 MasterPrints detected in 5 different full fingerprints from an optical fingerprint data set. NYU Tandon and Michigan State University researchers coined the term "MasterPrints" to denote partial fingerprints that are similar across a number of individuals and can potentially be used to fool security systems on mobile devices. Notice that the MasterPrints are mostly located in the lower regions of the full prints. The red dots mark the minutiae positions. In general, it is speculated that the minutiae configurations in these regions do not provide many distinguishing characteristics therefore leading to high false match rates. Credit NYU Tandon Usage Restrictions None License Licensed content Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.