CHAPTER 66: CHAPTER 66: MATCH SUCCESSFUL

In fingerprint identification analysis, collecting fingerprints is just the first step.

It is the foundation for all subsequent work.

It’s like building a skyscraper; if the foundation isn’t solid, the building won’t be tall.

It’s like singing in a diverse service karaoke bar; there’s a difference between the 800-dollar service and the 1000-dollar singing ladies.

It’s not that the more money you spend, the less they wear; on the contrary, the more you spend, the more clothes they might wear.

Lu Chuan has completed the basic work, and now it’s time to get into the real task.

Intermediate fingerprint collection skills enable Lu Chuan to meet most fingerprint collection needs.

Next, it’s time for the intermediate fingerprint identification analysis skills to shine.

Despite staying up all night and feeling physically exhausted, Lu Chuan was in an excited mental state.

The process of collecting fingerprints is intricate and tedious.

But the higher the difficulty of the fingerprint collection, the greater the sense of accomplishment after success.

In front of the computer, Lu Chuan stared at the screen with bloodshot eyes.

Lu Chuan was still using the image processing software that came with the fingerprint comparison system.

He started with the fingerprint collected from the picture frame that Yang Sen and Old Bai failed to compare yesterday.

Compared to the speed of Old Bai and Yang Sen taking two to three hours to process one fingerprint, Lu Chuan’s speed was much faster.

The magnified fingerprint appeared like a line drawing, with twisting and turning ridges irregularly distributed on the screen.

What Lu Chuan needed to do was pre-process the severely deformed fingerprint due to force and friction, restoring it to its normal shape.

And use his experience to find characteristic comparison points.

At this moment, Liu Guodong, Yang Sen, and Old Bai were quietly watching behind Lu Chuan.

"Last time, I remember Lu saying he had researched fingerprint collection but was just average at fingerprint identification..."

But Old Bai, watching Lu Chuan operate the software to process fingerprint images, clearly didn’t think it looked average.

Liu Guodong also frowned as he watched Lu Chuan pre-process the fingerprint.

Among the three, he was the highest level, and Lu Chuan had been learning from him since he joined.

Including the previous fingerprint identifications, Liu Guodong had taught Lu Chuan some techniques and methods.

So, Liu Guodong knew Lu Chuan’s level of fingerprint identification.

He had mastered some skills and had solid theoretical knowledge but lacked experience and practice.

But just a few days later, Liu Guodong was feeling a bit confused watching Lu Chuan’s operation on the computer.

A fingerprint photo kept zooming in and out, with feature points being marked, then unmarked, then marked again.

It made Liu Guodong’s vision feel dizzy and blurred.

Whew!

With a long exhale, Lu Chuan finally dealt with a fingerprint, with the intermediate fingerprint identification analysis skills giving him not only many techniques he hadn’t encountered before.

But also rich experience, with the immediate benefit being a significant increase in identification and analysis speed.

"Put it into the system and let it run once."

Lu Chuan muttered to himself as he entered the freshly processed fingerprint into the fingerprint comparison system.

Stretching his back, Lu Chuan stood up and almost fell in shock.

"Master, why are you all here?"

Faced with three big heads, Lu Chuan looked confused.

Ahem.

Liu Guodong coughed twice: "We just saw you processing fingerprints and came to take a look."

"Yes, came to take a look."

"We also just got here."

Yang Sen and Old Bai coordinated with Liu Guodong’s posture impeccably.

"Lu, were you just processing the fingerprint extracted from the picture frame yesterday?"

Old Bai remembered yesterday’s fingerprints vividly; he struggled with them for two or three hours, so he immediately recognized that Lu Chuan was dealing with the same fingerprint he had battled with the day before.

However, the result was unsatisfying due to Old Bai’s lacking technique, and he wasn’t pleased with the fingerprint.

Lu Chuan nodded and rubbed his eyes: "This fingerprint was severely deformed, with some smudges, but thankfully not many breakpoints, making the process relatively simple and manageable."

Simple?

Manageable?

Old Bai swallowed hard; he hadn’t found the fingerprint simple or manageable yesterday.

The pre-processing of deformed fingerprints is always challenging.

It is a test of the detailed inspection capabilities of forensic police.

Old Bai and Yang Sen are at the bottom of the forensic police food chain.

They are much better than new university graduates, experienced, with many practical methods.

Some not-so-severely deformed fingerprints can be matched successfully.

Far surpassing the technical personnel of county-level criminal investigation teams.

In the eyes of those below them, Old Bai and Yang Sen are technical talents that ordinary police can access, considered top level.

But when it came to the fingerprints extracted yesterday from the picture frame, which had smudges and were severely deformed, they were helpless.

It’s like pursuing women; Old Bai and Yang Sen could only handle certain levels.

Liu Guodong’s abilities are a notch stronger.

In dealing with complex fingerprint identifications, such as severely deformed fingerprints, his success rate is significantly higher than Old Bai and Yang Sen’s.

He is at the technical leader level among the more than a dozen criminal investigation teams in the province.

He can meet the usual crime scene investigation and trace evidence identification needs of significant but not overly complicated cases.

But compared with the provincial experts, there is a considerable gap.

He just reached the requirement to participate in provincial-level fingerprint competitions, and he’s at the bottom.

And now, Lu Chuan’s process of fingerprint identification analysis makes Liu Guodong feel like he’s watching a provincial senior expert identify fingerprints.

Understanding some actions but not entirely sure.

It’s like ... you think you’re in, but you might not be in all the way.

To put it in one sentence, it’s an unknowable but impressive skill.

Ding!

While pondering, a distinctive humming sound came from the computer speakers.

Liu Guodong and the others, who interacted with the fingerprint comparison system almost daily, were very familiar with this sound.

"Succeeded?"

Old Bai’s face showed surprise, and he leaned over to the screen.

"Comparison successful!"

The fingerprint comparison system used by the Haizhou Criminal Investigation Team was developed from the first-generation system.

The system is upgraded almost every year.

At present, the fingerprint comparison system basically supports three modes.

First, failed comparison.

Also known as foolproof mode.

After pre-processing, the system will compare the defined feature points with all fingerprints in the database.

This mode sets low requirements for fingerprint identification.

Since only one feature point needs to be confirmed, if this feature point differs from other fingerprints’ corresponding feature points, it can be declared a failure.

The comparison is complete.

However, this mode has one issue: selecting standard feature points during fingerprint pre-processing is crucial.

Only with standard selection can the comparison succeed.

If the selection of feature points is not standard, it will definitely fail.

This is why Old Bai and Yang Sen kept failing in their comparisons last night.

They didn’t succeed in pre-processing the fingerprint because the feature points they selected were problematic.

The second mode is similarity comparison.

This is also the most commonly used identification analysis method; the system uses the marked feature points to conduct a full database fingerprint match.

Then it ranks them based on the similarity of feature points.

Of course, it’s not guaranteed that the first-ranked fingerprint is the successful match.

There must be a manual confirmation of the two fingerprints; if distinct and different feature points can be identified, the comparison fails.

The advantage of this mode is that the system provides dozens or even hundreds of similar fingerprints.

There is a high likelihood that the target fingerprint is among these, requiring manual verification.

The last mode is the fingerprint comparison method that Lu Chuan chose.