image: (A) DESI (desortion electrospray ionization) image of distribution of cocaine on a fingerprint blotted on glass. (B) Computer generated fingerprint from DESI image. (C) Ink fingerprint blotted on paper and optically scanned. (D) Computer-generated finger-print from optical image. Some of the automatically detected points of interest (minutiae) are represented by dots in (B) and (D). This image relates to an article that appeared in the Aug. 8, 2008, issue of Science , published by AAAS. The study, by Dr. Demian Ifa and colleagues at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., was titled "Latent Fingerprint Chemical Imaging by Mass Spectrometry." view more
Credit: Image courtesy of Science/AAAS