UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Typically recorded in photographs, fingerprints at a crime scene can help identify perpetrators and ensure they are brought to justice. But a photo of a fingerprint may not deliver the most comprehensive picture possible, according to Akhlesh Lakhtakia, Evan Pugh University Professor and Charles G. Binder Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics.
Lakhtakia received a $300,000 grant from the Criminal Investigations and Network Analysis Center to explore a technique for creating 3D holograms of fingerprints. The grant will support two years of research in collaboration with researchers at the University of Dayton.
“Why store fingerprints as 2D objects?” Lakhtakia said. “When you impress your fingers on a surface, the print you leave behind is a three-dimensional object. It’s a ridge-and-valley structure, with sebaceous ridges about a tenth of a millimeter tall. So why are we throwing away the potential of the third dimension?”
To create the 3D image, the researchers will first deposit fingerprints on a number of materials, including glass, wood and polyethylene. They will then age the fingerprints for each material in different environmental conditions — humidity, dryness, cold and room temperature — for a day or a week.