In honour of Valentine's Day
If you want a non-threatening but intimate activity, try the science of reading fingerprints.
Few people can resist an offer to scientifically "read" their fingerprints. And you get to hold hands.
Back in the early days of automated fingerprint recognition, I was heavily into developing fingerprint recognition systems, but I also delved into why fingerprints are the way they are. It turns out fingerprints form in the womb and their patterns are influenced by the environment. If your mother was stressed while you were in her womb, your fingerprints will be more complex than someone whose mother was under no stress. So fingerprints can actually tell some things about the mother as well as the individual.
More complex fingerprints generally imply a person will tend to:
- have a shorter attention span
- be more creative
- be more excitable, nervous, etc.
- more action-oriented, spontaneous
- perhaps requiring slightly more stimulus to obtain the same intensity of feeling
- higher possibly that your mother was exposed to cigarette smoke
The opposite is true of less complex fingerprints, a person will tend to:
- have a longer attention span
- be calmer, more reserved, more deliberate
- be more cerebral
- be more careful
- be sensitive to small stimuli
Here are three basic types of fingerprint:
The arch is the least complex, followed by the loop, and the whorl is the most complex type of fingerprint, and there are intermediate gradations as well. You need to examine all of a person's fingerprints as there could be any mix of different styles on a single person.
Self-proclaimed "expert" fingerprint readers will extrapolate the basic indicators combined with other information about an individual to spin an entire psychological profile of the person. But you can also have fun using your imagination to trace your own or your partner's personality traits to what your mother was going through during pregnancy.
So have a go at examining your fingerprints and check out the medical studies. With fingerprint recognition coming back in a big way in many cell phones, I can imagine some crafty employer looking for personality characteristics in your fingerprints. At the very least I would expect a bunch of mobile apps to pop up claiming to read your personality and your mother's history from your fingerprints.
If you find this scary, it might indicate what type of fingerprint you have. If you just find this interesting, it might indicate a different type of fingerprint.....
Update
I created a video to show how simple it is to get a clear view of your fingerprint, just click on this link or the fingerprints above.
Doug
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