US police try to unlock smartphone with fingertips from 3D printer

The US police have asked a biometric recognition research group to make replicas of the fingertips of a murdered man. The goal is to use it to unlock his smartphone, hoping to find clues on it.

The fingertips are being developed at the request of the police by Professor Anil Jain and a student of his, Sunpreet Arora. Both are affiliated with Michigan State University and specialize in biometric identification, such as through fingerprints.

From his profile on the university site, it appears that Jain’s work tries, among other things, to prevent biometric systems from being circumvented. However, the police asked him to do just that, Fusion.net writes, because it was suspected that a murdered man’s smartphone contained clues that could lead to the perpetrator. However, the smartphone was locked and the police did not have the code to gain access. The police did have the man’s fingerprints, probably because he had previously been in contact with the police.

Jain and Arora used a 3D printer to copy all ten fingertips, because it was not known which finger the victim was using, although it seems likely that it is the thumb or index finger. The researchers coated the finger replicas with a layer of metal particles to make them conductive.

It is not yet known whether the trick works, but Jain expects to be able to send the fingers to the police in a few weeks after regular testing and refining. In the past, smartphone fingerprint readers have often been tricked, but since then manufacturers have made their readers more sophisticated.