Here is a bit of cool tech for the experimentally minded among you. Offered for sale is a real time finger-print imager. See a picture of it at:
The item is the "L" shaped box at the lower right corner of the image. It takes 12 vdc at 400 ma to run it, and it puts out NTSC video directly for your monitor. You can then make your own digital photo of the TV screen, or digitize the video if you have that capability.
The box can also be disassembled for the internal parts. There is a small solid-state TV camera with close-up lens, 3 first-surface mirrors, a solid-state illumination source, and a special target window for the fingerprint input. There is no image processing done in the box; the image seen on the screen is directly produced by the special target window.
I have a couple of these items. Each is available for $25, plus $7.50 shipping to the lower 48.
Regards, Bruce