Biometric Technology: Fingerprints - Article Example

Fingerprints A fingerprint from a narrow point of view is an impression left by the friction ridges of a human finger. Friction ridge is a raised body part of the epidermis on both fingers and toes, the sole of the foot or the hand palm consisting of one or more connected ridge units of friction ridge skin. From a wider range use of the term, they are marks of an impression from the friction ridges of a body component of a human being or any other primate hand. Print from the sole can also leave an impression of the friction ridges. Fingerprints deposit easily on some suitable surfaces such as metal, glass or a polished material by the secretions of sweat that are normally present in epidermal ridges. Human fingerprints are unique, detailed, durable, and difficult to alter the life of an individual enabling them as appropriate long-term markers of human identity and may be of use by authorities or by the police to identify individuals who wish to conceal their identity. They can also be used to identify people or deceased and thus unable to identify themselves in an aftermath of a natural disaster. In fingerprint identification, an exercise known as Dactyloscopy, a process of comparing two cases of friction ridge skin samples from human fingers, palm of the hand, sole of the foot or toes to determine whether these impressions would have an origin of the same individual. The flexibility aspect of friction ridge skin means that no two or more fingers or palm prints are ever exactly alike; they are always slightly different. However, this process involves an expert or an expert computer system. The idea of fingerprints emerged very long time ago back in 1000-2000 B.C. (Cole, p. 4) Fingerprints were found on ancient Babylon clay tablets, pottery, and seals. They were also found on the walls of Egyptian tombs, Greek, and Chinese pottery, bricks, and tiles from ancient Babylon and Rome. Discoveries show that the masons and the potters unintentionally deposited some of these fingerprints as a natural consequence of their work while others collected in the process of adding decoration. However, on some arts, fingerprint deposits were found impressed deeply that they possibly intended to serve as an identity mark by the marker. Fingerprints also used to act as signatures in ancient Babylon in the second millennium BCE in order to protect against forgery. In this process, parties in a legal contract would deposit their fingerprints into the clay tablet on which the contract is. By 246 BCE, the Chinese officials used the fingerprints technology to seal documents with the advent of silk and paper. Sometime before 851 CE, Abu Zayd Hasan witnessed Chinese merchants use fingerprints to authenticate loans. By 702, Japan legalized illiterate people seeking divorce to sign the petitions with fingerprints. In this period, the ancient people did not realize that fingerprints could identify individuals (Cole, p. 8). The fingerprints technology started developing significantly after its use discovered from the ancient people. In 1600s, the idea started spreading all over Europe where many scientists tried to develop the idea and make it an important issue, and it is where the technology began developing. A Dutch anatomist Govard Bidloo described friction ridge skin details in his book "Anatomy of the human body." In the year 1986, an anatomy professor at the University of Bologna, Marcello Malpighi noted fingerprints ridges, loops, and spirals in his treatise. It led to a skin layer named after him, "The Malpighi layer" which is approximated to be 1.8mm thick. In the year 1823, John Evangelist Purkinje, an anatomy professor at the University of Breslau published his thesis discussing the nine fingerprint patterns but did not mention any value of the prints for personal identification (Dinsk, 2011, p. 28). The British began using fingerprints in July 1858 when Sir James Herschel, a Magistrate of the Hooghly district in Jung poor used the idea of native contracts (1858). The native impressed much and Herschel made it a habit of requiring palm prints and later the prints of the middle and index fingers on every contract made with the local people. Persona contact with the document as they believed gave the contract more binding than if they signed it thus the first modern-day use of fingerprints predicated. However, Herschel began to note that the inked impression could indeed prove identity. This experience led him to a conviction that all fingerprints were unique to the individuals as well as being permanent throughout the individuals life, and this inspired him to expand their use. Professor Paul-Jean Coulier published is observations that latent fingerprints can be developed on paper by iodine fuming, explaining how to preserve such impression and the potential for identifying suspects fingerprints by the use of a magnifying glass (1863). Dr. Henry Faulds, a British Surgeon, published an article "Nature" where he discussed fingerprints as a means of personal identification and the possible use of ink as a method for obtaining such prints. He awarded the credits of the first fingerprint identity of a greasy fingerprint left on an alcohol bottle (Henry, 2002, p. 84-86). The technology of using fingerprints in the court of law emerged in the year 1882. Alphonse Bertillon, a clerk in the Police Prefecture of Paris, came up with a revised system of classification known as anthropometry. The system used measurements of the body such as head width, length of the middle finger, head width, as well as head length, length of the left foot, etc. Approved as the chief of the Department of Judicial Identity, he employed anthropometry as the means of identification. He introduced fingerprints but did not pass them (1880). Murder cases led to the introduction of the fingerprints technology to the criminal courts. Vucetich made the first convict fingerprint identification where he identified Francisca Rojas, a woman who killed her two sons and later committed suicide in an attempt to place blame on another. Her bloody print deposit on a door post proved her identity as the murderer (1892). The Council of Governor General of India approved a committee report that fingerprint technology application in the classification of criminal records employed (12th June 1897). Later in that same year, Calcutta Anthropometric Bureau became the worlds first fingerprint Bureau. Bose and Haque are the Indian fingerprint experts credited with the primary development of the Henry System of fingerprints identification (a system named after their supervisor Edward Henry). The system is usable up to date in Europe. Foundation of Fingerprint Branch at Scotland Yard using employing the Henry system and different departments all over USA made (Ramotowski, 2013, p. 40). One of the essential parts in a criminal investigation is fingerprinting. As the prints are unique to each individual, they help as an extremely accurate method of law enforcement agencies to self-identify a suspect as well as proving their innocence or guilt. Using fingerprints as a unique attribute of a human body to verify your identity is the best and easiest solution. It is the pure power of Biometrics Technology nowadays. Although the technology has been there for quite some time, advances in this emerging technology alongside the reduction in cost make the biometrics affordable and readily available to larger corporations and public sector agencies as well. The fingerprint scanner has two fundamental jobs. First, it needs to obtain an image of the finger and secondly it needs to determine whether the ridge pattern in the image matches the ridge pattern and valleys in the pre-scanned images. Only the particular characteristics which are unique to every fingerprint are obtainable and saved as an encrypted biometric key or in a mathematic representation. Only a number series (a binary code) for verification use filed but no fingerprint image. The duplication of the fingerprints is impossible since the algorithm reconversion back to an image is impossible (Will, 2010, p. 68). The fingerprint technology is of great relevance in criminal investigations too. Some visible human characteristics tend to change, but fingerprints will always remain persistent. Surgery causing deep scarring, barring injuries and diseases such as leprosy damage the formative layers of friction ridge skin but finger and palm prints features have never shown the possibility to move from nor change their unit relationship throughout a persons life. Another advantage is that fingerprints are impossible to fake than identity cards. Fingerprint pattern is unguessable as passwords are neither can someone misplace his fingerprints. These benefits give the biometrics a relatively perfect chance of identifying a suspect. There are several recent cases where the fingerprint technology assisted in the identification of criminal suspects. A 30- year old brutal murder case officially re-opened and assigned to the cold case detectives Doug Herout had to employ the knowledge of fingerprint matching. Doug worked with the laboratory technicians and analyst to achieve this. The crime involved 61- year old Carroll Bonnet stabbed to death in his apartment. Police collected the evidence including the latent fingerprints and palm prints from the victims washroom. The victims car went missing but later found in Illinois. Careful examination of the prints came up with an identification, Jerry Watson. Subsequent testing determined that Jerrys identified prints matched his DNA with the one recovered at the crime scene. It resulted in murder charges on Watson and on 17th October; the killer was sentenced to life in prison. Another recent criminal case involved a victim Lucille Johnson, a 78-year-old grandmother, beaten and strangled in her home about a decade ago. The killings went without justice until investigators with Salt Lake Citys police department reopened the case in 2014. Tissue samples from the victims fingernails went through DNA testing which werent available at death time. Fingerprints on the building blocks found strewn around the victims living room went through an examination. The DNA result identified John Sansing and the fingerprints belonged to Sansings son who was five years by then. Sansing, charged with murder, and his son revealed that he accompanied his father to the scene. In the year 2010, Police arrested Donald Smith with accusations of the 2008 carjacking and murder of a teacher in Gwinnett. It seemed that the police had the right man. Smith matched the witness description of appearing on a nearby surveillance camera and DNA evidence proving he was at the crime scene. However, Smith claimed that he wasnt involved and instead offered a usual defense. He claimed that his identical twin brother Ronald was to blame. After investigations had followed up on the claim, they found a card in his favor. The fingerprints at the crime scene didnt belong to Donald but belonged to Ronald. Even though twins may share exact DNA, they dont possess the same fingerprints. Fingerprints prove to be the most effective criminal identifier by helping resolve the cases which went without justice in the past and the present cases as well. The system has reduced crime rates too by alerting criminals of ease arrest despite clearing their evidence. Used over a decade, it offers unparalleled ability to capture real-time quickly, data and thus provide no repudiated trail. As a tool used in biometrics and forensic sciences, it works well, safely and accurately. Work Cited DinskNelson, Lisa S. America Identified: Biometric Technology and Society. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT, 2011. Print.i, Will. Fingerprints. Atlanta, Ga.: Top Shelf Productions, 2010. Print. Ramotowski, Robert. Lee and Gaensslens Advances in Fingerprint Technology. 3rd ed. Boca Raton, FL: CRC, 2013. Print. Lee, Henry C. Advances in Fingerprint Technology. 2nd ed. Boca Raton, Fla.: CRC,. Print. Cole, Simon A. Suspect Identities: A History of Fingerprinting and Criminal Identification. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, Print Tilstone, William J., and Kathleen A. Savage. Forensic Science an Encyclopedia of History, Methods, and Techniques. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO. Print. Beavan, Colin. Fingerprints: The Origins of Crime Detection and the Murder Case That Launched Forensic Science. New York: Hyperion. Print. Read More