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http://dx.doi.org/10.36623/KSSR.2019.61.16

Effects and Limitations of Separating Overlapped Fingerprints Using Fast Fourier Transform  

Kim, Chaewon (순천향대학교 법과학대학원)
Kim, Chaelin (순천향대학교 법과학대학원)
Lee, Hanna (순천향대학교 법과학대학원)
Yu, Jeseol (순천향대학교 법과학대학원)
Jang, Yunsik (한림대학교 정보법과학연구소)
Publication Information
Korean Security Journal / v., no.61, 2019 , pp. 377-400 More about this Journal
Abstract
Photography is the most commonly used method of documenting the crime and incident scene as it helps maintaining chain of custody (COC) and prove integrity of the physical evidence. It can also capture phenomena as they are. However, digital images can be manipulated and lose their authenticity as admissible evidence. Thus only limited techniques can be used to enhance images, and one of them is Fourier transform. Fourier transform refers to transformation of images into frequency signals. Fast Fourier transform (FFT) is used in this study. In this experiment, we overlapped fingerprints with graph paper or other fingerprints and separated the fingerprints. Then we evaluated and compared quality of the separated fingerprints to the original fingerprints, and examined whether the two fingerprints can be identified as same fingerprints. In the case of the fingerprints on graph paper and general pattern-overlapping fingerprints, fingerprint ridges are enhanced. On the other hand, in case of separating complicated fingerprints such as core-to-core overlapping and delta-to-delta overlapping fingerprints, quality of fingerprints can be deteriorated. Quality of fingerprints is known to possibly bring negative effects on the credibility of examiners. The result of this study may be applicable to other areas using digital imaging enhancement technology.
Keywords
Fast Fourier transform; Overlapped fingerprint; Separation of fingerprint; Fingerprint identification; Imaging enhancement;
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