Why this is important or relevant? We already have microchips and there is no need to study further about this, right? Unfortunately it still is a problem.

The lack of existing technology for this matter forces people to resort to the use of microchipping, an indelible method that currently is known to cause the least damage to dogs' health. However, even though this method is the most widely diffuse for pet identification, researches show that the implant can cause some adverse reactions, such as soft-tissue sarcomas surrounding the chip area.

In order to look for a noninvasive and still useful method, this talk shows the possibility of using the dogs' pawprints as zoometrics. In other words, if the characteristics present in their paws can be used as identification information for a AI classifier algorithm, so that it can be scanned similarly as a human fingerprint.