SBIR Phase I: Evaluation of The Use of A Contactless, Three-Dimensional Scanner for the Collection of Various Fingerprint Impressions

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is to enhance the ability of forensic scientists to capture, analyze, and search fingerprint impression evidence in the field. Additionally, a contactless device will eliminate the potential for alteration, loss of detail, or destruction of the fingerprint impression. This system will also have a positive impact on law enforcement agencies by accelerating fingerprint recovery, improving the quality of fingerprint impression evidence collected at crime scenes, reducing training requirements, and accelerating investigations. Furthermore, this project will address numerous concerns and recommendations regarding fingerprints and forensics published in the National Research Council's (NRC) 2009 Report, Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States: A Path Forward. This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will develop a novel device capable of digitally acquiring the various types of fingerprint impressions found at crime scenes - latent, patent, and plastic. Fingerprints represent one of the most important and fragile types of evidence. However, manually processing crime scenes for fingerprint impressions requires trained technicians, a variety of supplies, and a significant amount of time. Once visualized and processed, fingerprint impressions must undergo a multitude of steps in order to be digitized for searching against databases of exemplar fingerprint records. The goal of Phase I is to determine the technical and commercial feasibility of utilizing a contactless, three-dimensional (3D) scanning device to acquire different types of fingerprint impressions deposited on a variety of surfaces and convert them into two-dimensional (2D) fingerprints that are consistent and compatible with existing fingerprint databases and matching algorithms. To achieve these goals, the research team will build a prototype 3D scanner, develop new unrolling and segmentation algorithms, and test the ability to match recovered fingerprints against a database of exemplar fingerprint records.