A Czech criminologist is designing a video-based technology that can identify criminals simply by the way they put one foot in front of the other.

Scientists say a person's walk is nearly as unique as his fingerprint, and a careful study of someone's gait can yield all kinds of identifying qualities.

"The technique is based on dynamic stereotyping of each person's locomotion," says Jiří Straus, an expert on biomechanics who is developing the technology at the Czech Police Academy.

"We try to identify a person's own walking characteristics and parameters that characterize that person's bipedal locomotion. We try to spot a significant number of identifying characteristics."

He's been studying the way people walk for nearly 30 years. But it was only recently that he had the opportunity to apply his expertise and see its crime-fighting potential.

A Czech court used evidence from his computer-assisted analysis in 2005 to identify a suspect in a gas-station robbery.

A video camera had recorded the robber at the scene, but not his face. That's where Straus came in. His program was able to positively confirm the thief's identity simply by matching his walk to the video footage (though the police needed more evidence, and the suspect was let off).

Straus said the program would be ready for regular use some time in 2008.

"It has to be precise enough to sort out lots of information very fast, in real time," he says.

Such technology could prove a boon for police. According to the Interior Ministry, there are more than 200 armed robberies a year in the Czech Republic. Last year, 155 robberies were at gas stations and 52 were at banks, savings-and-loans centers and post offices. Most of those places have video surveillance systems that would enable Straus' program to go to work.

His project appears so promising that media have said authorities can develop a database of otherwise hard to identify criminals one day soon.

Straus, however, says he has nothing to do with any such plans and that he is merely focused on fine-tuning the technology, despite having almost no budget to do so.

He says he needs a minimum of 1 million Kč ($44,267) to complete his work. A better laboratory would help as well, he says.

Yet Straus says foreign investors are not interested. And some here remain doubtful of the technology's potential.

"I've only heard about the project from the newspapers, so I'm rather skeptical about it," says Jan Hlaváček, director of the Interior Ministry's department of crime. "There have been many methods like this, and the press has perhaps exaggerated this latest one. But I haven't seen it yet, so I can't say whether it works. If it does, I'll be pleased."

Critics point out that Straus' technology isn't foolproof: A criminal could simply adopt a different walking style during his crime to avoid identification.

Straus doesn't buy that.