Young Scientist Invents New Fingerprint Recovery Mechanism After Home Burglary

What sounds like the story from a Hollywood crime show is actually a real story originating from Australia. A young scientist, Dr Kang Liang, comes home one day to find his house burglarized. The thief got away with some of his favourite belongings and frustrated by the law enforcers limitations he uses his knowledge of science to create a new and improved method for fingerprint capturing.

The new process allows forensic investigators to use a new liquid instead of the old fashioned dusting technique. The liquid contains luminescent crystals that bond to the residue and become visible with UV light. The new technique will allow to take high-resolution digital images of the fingerprint and get much better and detailed images than previously possible. To get the same results, the item with the fingerprint currently needs to be shipped to a special lab where it will be heat and vacuum treated and thereby.

With this new method, investigators can take high-resolution digital photos of the fingerprints right away and transfer them digitally to a central for processing and matchmaking. This could save days if not weeks in investigations and eventually even save lives in some cases.

CSIRO said in a statement: “As far as we know, it’s the first time that these extremely porous metal organic framework crystals have been researched for forensics,” and they are now looking to partner with police forces around the Australia. A thing that I’m sure will spread around the world shortly thereafter, also aided by a large news outlet such as The Sydney Morning Herald bringing this news to everyone.

While the new process won’t help Dr Kang Liang of CSIRO in his own case and get his things back, it might make things a lot more difficult for any other criminal out there.