Enhancement methods on various surfaces of latent fingerprints produced from artificial fingerprints

Even after 100 years, fingerprints are still the best for personal identification in criminal investigation yet fake or artificial fingers exist and are potential threats. This study focuses on enhancement methods on various surfaces of latent fingerprints produced from artificial fingerprints. Fingerprint marks on left- and right-hand thumb, index and middle were taken from 10 volunteers. Thermoplastic, Alginate and latex were chosen as mold while paper glue, wood glue, hot glue and silicone sealant were chosen as casting materials. Each artificial fingerprints will produce a latent fingerprint mark on various surfaces such as soft plastic (plastic bag), hard plastic (PVC pipe), CD (Reverse side), aluminum foil and microscope slide. A total of 3000 latent fingerprints produced were then enhanced by using black powder and cyanoacrylate fuming. Visualization of latentfingerprints were then classified into 4 scoring, 0 until 3. For the male latent fingerprints' marks, scoring 0 have highest count where it consists of 50.6% of total 1500 samples whereas scoring 3 is the least count where it only consists of 10.5%. Female latent fingerprint meanwhile had the highest count in scoring 0 which were 60.5% and scoring 3 were the least which only had 3.9% of total 1500 samples. The ridges formed were influenced by the casting materials. Although it is difficult to enhance latent fingerprints from artificial fingerprint, there is still a possibility of finding artificial fingerprints at crime scene and enhancement methods must be conducted.