Development of Latent Fingerprint Impressions Using Mica Mineral Powder

Fingerprints are unique identical characteristic of a person. These are the impressions left by the friction ridges and furrows on epidermis layer in human finger on contact with any surface. The primary advantage of a fingerprint is that it does not change over time and play a crucial role with Criminal Justice System in criminal identification and for criminal data record. Fingerprint identification is the process to identify the impressions of fingerprint formed by the minute ridges present on the fingertips. Fingerprints have certain individual characteristics which are unique even in the identical twins. Fingerprints are most generally recovered from crime scene. These impressions are obtained when natural oils and perspiration (sweat) exist between the ridges and furrows of fingertips and get transferred to a surface by any contact. Latent Fingerprints are invisible and harder to detect and preserve, so, can be obtained by the physical or chemical methods. In this paper, my research focuses on developing latent fingerprints or invisible fingerprints using Mica mineral powder on various surfaces. Here I used the Mica mineral powder (abeer – अबीर) generally used in worshiping god and goddesses in India, which is used for obtaining latent fingerprints.