Printed fingerprints at crime scenes: a faster detection of malicious traces using scans of confocal microscopes

Mario Hildebrandt; Stefan Kiltz; Jana Dittmann

doi:10.1117/12.2004507

22 March 2013 Printed fingerprints at crime scenes: a faster detection of malicious traces using scans of confocal microscopes

Mario Hildebrandt, Stefan Kiltz, Jana Dittmann

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 8665, Media Watermarking, Security, and Forensics 2013; 866509 (2013) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2004507
Event: IS&T/SPIE Electronic Imaging, 2013, Burlingame, California, United States

Abstract

Fingerprint traces are an important part of forensic investigations to identify potential perpetrators. With the possibility of printing traces for quality assurance purposes it is also possible to place malicious traces on crime scenes. In forensics examiners are already aware of multiple identical traces, e.g. produced by stamping fingerprints. The technique of printing fingerprints using artificial sweat allows to create different versions of the same fingerprint, similar to the residue from a finger, which is almost never 100 percent identical to another latent fingerprint. Hence, Kiltz et al.¹ introduce a first framework for the detection of such malicious traces in subjective evaluations based on dot patterns of amino acid. Hildebrandt et al.² introduce a first automated approach for the detection of printed fingerprints using high resolution scans from a chromatic white light sensor. However, the reported recognition accuracy is insufficient for forensic investigations.

In this paper we propose an improved feature extraction for scans using a confocal microscope to reduce the overall analysis time and to increase the recognition accuracy. Our evaluation is based on 3000 printed and 3000 real fingerprints on the three surfaces hard disk platter, overhead foil and compact disk advancing the research from Hildebrandt et al.² Our goal is to benchmark the feature extraction and recognition of printed fingerprints for the three substrates as well as for the combination thereof. The results indicate a significant reduction of the necessary analysis time to less than one minute as well as an improved recognition rate of up to 99.7 percent for all samples on the three surfaces in comparison to the previously achieved 91.48 percent on two surfaces as reported in Hildebrandt et al.²

Citation Download Citation

Mario Hildebrandt, Stefan Kiltz, and Jana Dittmann "Printed fingerprints at crime scenes: a faster detection of malicious traces using scans of confocal microscopes", Proc. SPIE 8665, Media Watermarking, Security, and Forensics 2013, 866509 (22 March 2013); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2004507

ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE

INSTITUTIONAL
Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.

SELECT YOUR INSTITUTION

PERSONAL
Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.

PERSONAL SIGN IN

No SPIE Account? Create one

PURCHASE THIS CONTENT

SUBSCRIBE TO DIGITAL LIBRARY

50 downloads per 1-year subscription

Members: $195

Non-members: $335 ADD TO CART

25 downloads per 1 - year subscription

Members: $145

Non-members: $250 ADD TO CART

PURCHASE SINGLE ARTICLE

Includes PDF, HTML & Video, when available