Role of Dorsal Surface of Tongue in Personal Identification: A Review

Personal identification is essential for any forensic investigation. Due to diversification of the criminal activities and awareness about the technology, there is a need to develop new and innovative personal identification techniques to combat the worse encountered situations at the crime scene. Tongue prints are found to be other existing biometric tools and recognized as another feasible system for personal identity. The dorsal surface of tongue offers more individualistic characteristics with visible distribution of patterns and can be considered as another fingerprint. The individualistic nature of these patterns and indefinite differentiation between features offered the way to consider it as a tool for personal identification. In this study, an attempt has been made to review the available literature to bring into light the uniqueness of tongue prints and its biometric use in forensic investigation. The limitations of the tongue prints and its future aspects are also elucidated in this article.