Identifying people by their footprints

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New research suggests that individuals can be identified with a very high degree of accuracy just by looking at the pressure signature of a person's foot on the ground as they walk. Researchers from Shinshu University, University of Manchester, and their colleagues showed that a new computer-enabled image processing technique enabled them to identify almost every person, in their study of 104 individuals, by their "dynamic foot pressure patterns, which indirectly reflect the accelerations of all body parts." I reckon the technique could be useful to catch barefoot bandits. From the Journal of the Royal Society: Interface:

As dynamic pressure data are immediately usable, with little or no pre-processing required, and as they may be collected discreetly during uninterrupted gait using in-floor systems, foot pressure-based identification appears to have wide potential for both the security and health industries.

"Gait recognition: highly unique dynamic plantar pressure patterns among 104 individuals"

Image: According to legend, these footprints in marble held at the Basilica of San Sebastiano fuori le mura are said to have been left by Jesus.