Biometric recognition, or biometrics, refers to the authentication of an individual based on her or his biometric traits. Among the various biometric traits (e.g., face, iris, fingerprint, voice), fingerprint-based authentication has the longest history, and it has been successfully adopted in both forensic and civilian applications. Advances in fingerprint capture technology have resulted in new large-scale civilian applications (e.g., US–VISIT program); however, these systems still encounter difficulties due to various noise factors present in operating environments. The purpose of this article is to give an overview of fingerprint-based recognition and discuss research opportunities for making these systems perform more effectively.