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Crime Your Rights Online

Researchers Lift Fingerprints From Clothing 40

Posted by samzenpus from the dust-it-all dept.
cylonlover writes "Refining an existing technique that's been used to successfully recover fingerprint detail from smooth objects such as glass and plastic, forensic scientists have managed to create a kind of photo negative of fingerprint impressions on fabric. It's a bit hit and miss at the moment, but even when clear ridge detail isn't retrieved, the technique could still prove useful to investigators looking for other evidence."
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Researchers Lift Fingerprints From Clothing More

Researchers Lift Fingerprints From Clothing

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  • Didn't I just see that on CSI? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Maybe it was NCIS ...

    • It was Super Troopers [youtube.com]

    • I remember seeing something on similar FBI files, which IIRC was over 5 years ago. They had bloodied palm and fingerprints left on a sheet. The problem wasn't so much a lack of evidence but that the pattern of the material intefered with the prints to an extent where a jury couldn't be expected to be able to identify it as a match. They used image processing to essentially subtract the patterning from an unstained area of the material to end up with a relatively clean image.

      It was a reasonably interesting e

  • Doh.. (Score:4, Funny)

    by markass530 ( 870112 ) <(markass530) (at) (gmail.com)> on Thursday February 03, 2011 @01:57AM (#35087790) Homepage
    It never occurred to me that they COULDN'T do so. at least that's the way I always planned my crimes
    • another assumption you should discard after learning the truth is the business of "fingerprint matching"
      • Agreed, mainly because I have none. on account of a battery acid accident.
        • Aha! Now we finally know who to blame for all those crime scenes where we didn't find any fingerprints.

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Mod parent up. I own the FBI Fingerprint training manual. It's not a real science. It's not quantifiable and is based on inductive reasoning.

        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy_of_science#Induction

        There is no data to support the alleged "uniqueness" of fingerprints other than "We checked, like, AT LEAST 100 people, and none of them were identical".

        They essentially place dots on distinctive features such as "curves" and "swirls" and then measure the distances between these dots. If a small fraction fall

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          As well as being subjective there is also the issue of partial or distorted prints. It is rare to get a perfect print like they do on CSI.

          DNA matching is also not all it's cracked up to be either. Again there are issues with poor samples and the practice of "amplifying" to obtain a usable amount of material. Even with a good sample matching is not 1:1, you only get a probability. At best most real world tests are only accurate to about 1 in 10,000 at best, pretty crappy odds.

  • Quick! (Score:5, Funny)

    by mug funky ( 910186 ) on Thursday February 03, 2011 @01:58AM (#35087794)

    Test the inside of OJ's bloody glove.

    • Slow! he already admitted to it...

      • sorry, not american.

        that part of the story didn't really filter down to australia and it somehow never occurred to me to look it up on the wiki.

    • The original print was ruined when he put the gloves on during the trial.

  • Is it 1985 again? (Score:4, Informative)

    by dbIII ( 701233 ) on Thursday February 03, 2011 @02:15AM (#35087846)
    A clever technique involving lasers and polarised light to detect fingerprints on clothing was used in 1985 in New Zealand to catch the murderers of an environmental activist.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by dbIII ( 701233 )
      There's probably not a lot on the net due to how long abo it was but here's one thing in L-space:

      P. D. Drummond, Green Light on the Rainbow Warrior. Auckland Applied Research Office Information Bulletin, (1987). [ Article on the use of lasers for forensic work, which successfully identified the terrorists who sank the Rainbow Warrior - a civilian vessel in Auckland Harbour.]

  • I believe this is the same technique Jesus used to create the Shroud of Turin. (~)
  • In understand that involve fabrics... but still quite a distance from a cloth to censoring-the-pipes (Web-ified or not).
    • Maybe they're going to clog the pipes with censored cloth?
    • YRO = Your RIghts Online, or Your Rights, Online?

      Comma can make a difference there. Maybe the section is evolving from what it was. Or, maybe someone got a little jumpy.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by PPH ( 736903 )
      Until they require fingerprint scanners in everyone's 'Enter' key.

  • ... one can just put molded plastic over ones fingers, or wear "fake hands". With the plastic tech now available people can leave less trace of themselves behind.

  • "Refining an existing technique that's been used to successfully recover fingerprint detail from smooth objects such as glass and plastic, forensic scientists have managed to create a kind of photo negative of fingerprint impressions on fabric. It's a bit hit and miss at the moment, but even when clear ridge detail isn't retrieved, the technique could still prove useful to investigators looking for other evidence."

    Your Honor I didn't grab her 'couch'! Oh wait, wrong prints.

  • File this under "your rights on linen"

    - RG>

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