A portable device that could scan fingerprints in microseconds has been developed by scientists in India. The system, which works using a technique called optical coherence tomography, promises to be better than existing fingerprint detection methods since it does not require any chemical processing.
Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is like an optical version of ultrasound imaging. The technique is already routinely used in medicine, but has not had a forensic application until now.
The technique provides a transparent 3D structural picture by sending light though the pattern of natural secretions left on a surface by a finger and combining the reflected beam with a “reference beam” produced by bouncing light from a laser off a mirror.
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