Traditional fingerprinting techniques are designed to detect sweat from the eccrine glands in the skin which is left behind on surfaces. However if the print is old or dried out, these techniques may not be able to lift a usable impression.
The newly developed method instead employs nanotechnology to detect the amino acids traces present in sweat that remain on surfaces long after the rest of the print has degraded. The new technique is so promising that researchers believe it may one day allow law enforcement officers to obtain prints of any age from any surface – even human skin. [via BBC News]
Top image courtesy of Chadmiller via Flickr
Gordy
Tuesday, June 7, 2011 at 2:15 PMSome problems that immediately come to mind…
1) A blanket approach to detection will be needed because one cannot see in advance what actually might be detected. You know, spotting a fingerprint by eye when the incidence of light on the surface with respect to your eye is not going to work. I suppose CSIs will just continue to target areas where typically people may touch (door handles, etc).
2) CSIs will gather prints years old made by people who had nothing to do with the crime.
Anyway, I’m sure it will be helpful in some cases.