Fingerprinting Gizmo - Katelyn Owens | Library

Welcome to the CSI training lab! In the Fingerprinting Gizmo you will learn how to find, collect, classify, and match fingerprints collected from the crime scene to suspects.

Check that the Training mode is selected. In the crime lab, someone has come in and “stolen” valuable equipment, leaving their fingerprints behind. Your job is to find and collect the fingerprints. Click Continue to enter the lab.

The smudge you see is a fingerprint. Drag and release the camera over the fingerprint to take a photograph. Now look at the definitions of the three types of crime-scene prints

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What kind of print is an impression in a soft substance such as wax?

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What kind of print is formed from skin oils and is nearly invisible?

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Which type of print was found on the door? Select your answer and click Check. Correct your answer if needed.

Explore: Look for other visible prints by clicking on different parts of the crime lab. (Hint: There are two visible prints in total.) You can select Show all locations to see which parts of the lab you can see up close. 

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What type of print was found on the gel box?

After finding the two visible prints, you will see a duster appear in the upper right corner. The duster spreads fingerprint powder, which sticks to the skin oils that make up latent prints, allowing them to be seen. Drag the duster into the lab to dust for prints.

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On what types of surfaces are latent fingerprints most likely to be found?

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Latent fingerprints are composed of skin oils. If you wished to leave no fingerprints behind, what could you do?

Once you have collected the rest of the prints, it is time to classify the prints.

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Look the at groups, ridges that enter and exit from opposite sides is a

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At the top of the screen click on the arch subgroups, which type of arch has continous ridges that gradually slope upward in the middle

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At the top of the screen click on the loop subgroups, which type of loop has ridges that enter and exit from thumb side of the hand.

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At the top of the screen click on the whorl subgroups, which type of whorl has ridges that form two separte loops?

Now that you have researched a little about fingerprints, it is time for you to classify Jill Johnson's, Marcus Morris, Jack Davis and the fingerprints you collect (35 in total) Drag the fingerprint to the correct box to identify the prints.

Introduction: While two fingerprints may belong to the same subgroup and may look very similar, how can you tell if they really came from the same finger? One way is to identify tiny details, called minutiae (my NEW she a). 

In the next activity, you will learn how to find minutiae and use minutiae to match fingerprints. You will then be ready to solve crimes!

Drag the first print into the large white box. To label minutiae, drag a label from the Minutiae list on the left to the correct spot on the print. Identify as many as you can find. Repeat this process for each print.

In order to move on you need to find at least one example of a minutiae trait among the three samples.

Hint: 

Print one has the following traits: island, spur, short ridge, trifurcation, ridge ending

Print two has an island, bridge, bifurcation

Print three has a island, lake, ridge crossing, Dbl. bifurcation