Examination of Firearms Review: 2007 to 2010 - Interpol

Saijo et al. propose ultrasound imaging of fingerprints for medical purposes. The
proposed method allows obtaining clear 3D images of the finger surface, but also of
the rear surface of the fingerprint (dermal papillae), in vivo (374).
Causin et al. (375) present the analysis of latex gloves using thermogravimetric
analysis. This yielded a discriminating power of 99.5%.
Stature estimation from hands and phalanges is described by Habib and Kamal
(376); these estimations show a good mean correspondence to stature. Right and left
hand and foot lengths are investigated for a North Indian population. In particular, the
goal is to be able to infer the size of a missing member for identifying the deceased;
indeed, these measures are correlated and regression equations are proposed,
where, for example, the right foot length is predicted from the right hand length and
breadth (377). In the same context of identification of human remains, a sex
difference of the index to ring finger ratio is found (on 300 subjects of south Indian
origin); this ratio is larger for females (378).
Packaging of objects for the protection of different kinds of marks, including
fingermarks is described by Tietze and Heer (379); for porous surfaces, paper bags
or cardboard boxes should be used, for nonporous surfaces friction should be
avoided; generally again cardboard is privileged, but plastic containers are also
mentioned (for example for weapons, that are also the object of special attention in
this article).
The organization and fitting out of forensic laboratories has been analysed, and a
basis for the conception of such laboratories has been presented. This concept is
based on several modules that can be assembled according to the needs of a given
laboratory. It emphasizes rationalisation, for example through shortening the
distances to be covered in particular working sequences (380).
3.1 Knuckles
Both the inside and the outside of knuckles has been investigated for their use in
biometric identification. The inside of knuckles, obtained from images of the whole
palms, has been used by Nanni and Lumini. An equal error rate of a minimum of 0.3
is obtained for one knuckle, and when both knuckles from middle and ring fingers,
the equal error rate obtained in the best scenario is of zero, but obtained on 72 users
only (and 10 images of the right hand for each user) (381). The outside of knuckles
has been investigated by Kumar and Ravikanth (382), as well as Zhang et al. (383) ;
they demonstrate that finger knuckles can be used to distinguish same-source from
different-source acquisitions in a biometric setting. Whether or not this discrimination
could be achieved when marks (if such marks did occur) are compared to reference
material is not the subject of these articles, and therefore remains unknown; however
these are promising biometrics that could help in source attributions.
3.2 Barefoot impressions
An overview of research on barefoot impressions has been proposed (384). Maltais
and Yamashita (385) present an operational trial where nine marks from bare feet
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