All posts tagged: fingerprints

Let’s learn about fingerprints

Let’s learn about fingerprints

Published by skeptic

Nearly everyone in the world carries a unique ID right at their fingertips. These are their fingerprints — the swooping, swirling patterns in the fine ridges of skin on the pads of their fingers. No two people have the same fingerprints. Not even identical twins. That’s why some phones can be unlocked with a user’s fingertip. And why fingerprints left at a crime scene can help identify whodunnit. Fingerprints form before birth. The patterns originate from three spots on each fingertip: under the nail, at the center of the finger pad and at the crease of the first finger joint. The design of a fingerprint depends on how skin ridges spread out from these three spots and merge. A person’s fingerprints may spread out slightly over the course of their life. But the overall pattern stays the same. See all the entries from our Let’s Learn About series When someone touches an object, they may leave a stamp of their fingerprint on it. This imprint may be made of oil, dirt or other substances that …

Drug residue can be detected in fingerprints left at crime scenes

Drug residue can be detected in fingerprints left at crime scenes

Published by skeptic

A researcher uses a chemical to extract drug residue from fingerprints Loughborough University Forensic scientists have developed a new technique that can detect drug and explosive residue on fingerprint samples from crime scenes. “That information, the presence of drug particles, is an almost untapped resource,” says James Reynolds at Loughborough University in the UK. That is because investigators use thin gelatine layers, called gel lifters, to lift fingerprints. These introduce chemicals to samples, making it difficult to identify trace amounts of drugs or explosives on them. … Source link

British holidaymakers warned to prepare for major new airport rules in 29 European countries

British holidaymakers warned to prepare for major new airport rules in 29 European countries

Published by Sam

The new system will record fingerprints and facial images at the border -Credit:Getty Images/iStockphoto Brits planning autumn and winter getaways have been warned of major changes coming into force before the end of this year affecting travel in and out of the European Union. A total of 29 countries in Europe are set to implement a new Entry/Exit System (EES), an automated IT system designed to register travellers from outside the EU using their name, travel document, and biometric data – namely fingerprints and facial images. After multiple delays in rolling out the new system, it is expected to be implemented in airports across all countries in the Schengen Area in October, including Spain, Greece, Italy, France and Germany. This new system will replace manual passport stamping, and will mean non-EU travellers including Brits will need to instead scan their passports at a self-service kiosk prior to crossing the border, Birmingham Live reports. Personal data will be collected and stored to make it easier to keep track of short stay travellers, with a short stay …

Jellyfish-inspired glowing dye can glom onto fingerprints at crime scenes

Jellyfish-inspired glowing dye can glom onto fingerprints at crime scenes

Published by skeptic

Imagine a crime scene. Chances are, you’re also imagining someone dusting for fingerprints. Despite recent debates of whether fingerprint evidence is accurate and reliable, it can still prove extremely useful in certain situations, such as narrowing down potential suspect lists. Unfortunately, this technique often employs toxic powders, including environmentally harmful petrochemicals that can damage DNA evidence. [Related: The racist history behind using biology in criminology.] Thanks to a collaboration between scientists from the UK’s University of Bath and China’s Shanghai Normal University, this may change in the future. In a new study published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, researchers laid out their case for a novel method of lifting latent fingerprints—a water soluble spray that is not only safer and faster, but easier to examine thanks to its ability to glow in the dark. It all started with a tip-off from jellyfish. For millions of years, many of these ocean invertebrates have contained Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP), which are fluorescent under certain lighting conditions. Knowing this, the team created two different dyes, …

AI challenges long-held belief that all fingerprints are unique

AI challenges long-held belief that all fingerprints are unique

Published by skeptic

[Jan. 18, 2024: JD Shavit, The Brighter Side of News] From crime dramas like “Law and Order” to real-life detective work, fingerprints have long been hailed as the ultimate tool for linking criminals to crime scenes. (CREDIT: Creative Commons) From crime dramas like “Law and Order” to real-life detective work, fingerprints have long been hailed as the ultimate tool for linking criminals to crime scenes. The assumption has always been that each person’s fingerprints are utterly unique, making it a foolproof way to identify suspects. However, a groundbreaking study led by Columbia Engineering undergraduate senior Gabe Guo is shaking the very foundation of this belief. Guo, who had no prior knowledge of forensics, embarked on a mission to challenge the conventional wisdom surrounding fingerprint identification. Using a vast public U.S. government database containing around 60,000 fingerprints, Guo and his team harnessed the power of artificial intelligence (AI) through a deep contrastive network. They meticulously paired fingerprints, sometimes from the same person but different fingers and sometimes from entirely different individuals. The results were nothing short …

AI Study Claims Human Fingerprints Aren’t Actually Unique

AI Study Claims Human Fingerprints Aren’t Actually Unique

Published by skeptic

Not so special now. Old Prints, New Tricks New research suggests that our fingerprints aren’t actually unique, in what could potentially be a blow to a long-held cornerstone of forensic science. The work, published as a study in the journal Science Advances, involved using a type of AI model commonly used for facial recognition, which the researchers configured to look for patterns and identifiers in fingerprints that humans may be overlooking. And that, according to the researchers, is exactly what the AI did, identifying whether prints from different types of fingers came from the same person with 75 to 90 percent accuracy, the BBC reported. “It is clear that it isn’t using traditional markers that forensics have been using for decades,” study co-author Hod Lipson, a roboticist at Columbia University, told the broadcaster. Beyond the Minutiae The researchers trained their AI model on a database of 60,000 fingerprints. Lead author Gabe Guo, a senior undergrad at Columbia University, told CNN that the AI was able to look beyond finger features known as “minutiae” that detectives …

AI can tell if prints from two different fingers belong to same person

AI can tell if prints from two different fingers belong to same person

Published by skeptic

The prints from two fingers on the same hand may appear different, but AI can spot fundamental similarities Andrey_Kuzmin/Shutterstock Artificial intelligence can accurately identify whether or not fingerprints left by different fingers came from the same person. This could help forensic investigators uncover if one individual was present at separate crime scenes. Current technologies are only capable of matching fingerprints left by the same finger. But previous studies have hinted there may be fundamental similarities between all of a person’s fingertips. So, Gabe Guo at Columbia University in New York and his colleagues trained a machine learning model to determine if it could identify whether fingerprints from different fingers belong to the same person. In the training, they used more than 50,000 fingerprints from almost 1000 people. Samples came from public databases at the US National Institute of Standards and Technology and the University at Buffalo in New York. All fingerprints belonged to deceased individuals or had been de-identified from people still alive. The team then tested the trained model on a separate set of …

Indian state government fixes website bug that revealed Aadhaar numbers and fingerprints

Indian state government fixes website bug that revealed Aadhaar numbers and fingerprints

Published by skeptic

A security researcher says a bug on an Indian state government website inadvertently revealed documents containing residents’ Aadhaar numbers, identity cards, and copies of their fingerprints. The bug was fixed last week after the security researcher disclosed the bug to local authorities. Sourajeet Majumder found the bug in the West Bengal government’s e-District web portal that allows state residents to access government services online, like obtaining birth and death certificates and building applications. Majumder said the website bug meant it was possible to obtain land deeds, which contain records about the owners of a piece of land, from the e-District website by guessing sequential deed application numbers. Application identification numbers are unique 16-digit numbers issued by the state government when a local resident applies for a digital copy of a deed. A partially blurred copy of an exposed West Bengal resident’s land deed. Not every application identification number was valid. Using publicly available tools like Burp Suite to analyze the network traffic in and out of the website meant that Majumder could cycle through entire …