Lip print enhancement: review.

Area of Science:

• Forensic Science
• Biometrics

Background:

• Lip prints (LPs) possess unique, persistent patterns valuable for human identification.
• Cheiloscopy utilizes these unique lip features as circumstantial forensic evidence.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review current physical and chemical techniques for latent lip print enhancement.
• To identify limitations in existing methods and suggest future research directions for cheiloscopy.

Main Methods:

• Literature review of physical and chemical enhancement techniques for lip prints.
• Analysis of current practices and standardization issues in forensic cheiloscopy.

Main Results:

• Various substances like dyes and powders are used for conventional LP development.
• Existing techniques for enhancing lip prints on diverse substrates show inconsistency and lack standardization.

Conclusions:

• Standardized and consistent methods are needed for effective lip print enhancement in forensic investigations.
• Further research is crucial to establish practical, reliable cheiloscopic techniques for criminal justice applications.