المستخلص: |
The use of fingerprints as a biometric tool has been used for over 2000 years and it is the most common and oldest physical evidence used in identifying suspects who are involved in crime scenes, incidents, accidents and so forth. Fingerprints are found to be largely in use in law enforcements applications. Underwater recovery operations in acquiring submerged fingerprints have been practiced for several years and studies show that obtaining prints from water that are left for several days appear to still be of good quality. The focus of this project is to investigate the stability of fingerprints from individuals who are of different ethnic and cultural backgrounds and the effects of secretions such as an individual’s diet, drinking habits and the climate in which the individual lives, on the fingerprint when immersed in different types of water for a sustained period of time. The prints were immersed in different types of water to assess the extent to which the prints remained clear and identifiable, and the length of time taken before they deteriorate was also used as a variable, to consider if and how the type of water affected the results. This study considers whether fingerprints from people of a particular ethnic background remain more stable than others, and discusses the reasons why this might be, such as the effect of diet, drinking habits and climate on the chemical make-up of the different excretions.
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