title: The Reed-Stanton press rig for the generation of reproducible fingermarks: Towards a standardised methodology for fingermark research.
abstract: In the search for better or new methods/techniques to visualise fingermarks or to analyse them exploiting their chemical content, fingermarks inter-variability may hinder the assessment of the method effectiveness. Variability is due to changes in the chemical composition of the fingermarks between different donors and within the same donor, as well as to differential contact time, pressure and angle. When validating a method or comparing it with existing ones, it is not always possible to account for this type of variability. One way to compensate for these issues is to employ, in the early stages of the method development, a device generating reproducible fingermarks. Here the authors present their take on such device, as well as quantitatively describing its performance and benefits against the manual production of marks. Finally a short application is illustrated for the use of this device, at the method developmental stages, in an emerging area of fingerprinting research concerning the retrieval of chemical intelligence from fingermarks.
authors.affiliation: Art and Design Research Centre, Sheffield Hallam University, UK.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Reed
authors.affiliation: Art and Design Research Centre, Sheffield Hallam University, UK.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Stanton
authors.affiliation: Centre for Sports Engineering Research, Sheffield Hallam University, UK.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wheat
authors.affiliation: Centre for Sports Engineering Research, Sheffield Hallam University, UK.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kelley
authors.affiliation: Fingerprint Bureau, Forensic Services, Scottish Police Authority, Glasgow, UK.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Davis
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Oklahoma, OK, USA.
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Rao
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Sciences, University of Milano Bicocca, Monza, Italy.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Sheffield, UK.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Owen
authors.affiliation: Centre For Mass Spectrometry Imaging, Biomolecular Research Centre, Sheffield Hallam University, UK. Electronic address: s.francese@shu.ac.uk.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Francese
mesh_terms: D003878:Dermatoglyphics; D044707:Forensic Sciences / Q000295:instrumentation*; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D015203:Reproducibility of Results
keywords: Ageing; Fingermarks; Press rig; Quantitative; Reproducible