Police Are 3D-Printing a Dead Man’s Fingerprints to Unlock His Smartphone

Michigan policemen are turning to a novel tactic to circumvent the security locks on the smartphone of a murder victim.

In a move evocative of the techno-wizardry seen in the Mission Impossible spy capers, the police have hired an influential biometrics expert to 3D-print a replica of the victim’s fingerprint, which could then be used to unlock the phone, The Verge reports.

Because the investigation is active, few details have yet to surface regarding the actual crime, suspects, as well the identity of the victim. What we do know is that the police have commissioned Anil Jain, who specializes in biometric signifiers and whose work ironically focuses on strengthening biometric security measure, to recreate the dead man’s fingerprint.

The police have given Jain and his team of graduate students scans of all ten of the victim’s fingerprints rather than access to the corpse itself, possibly because it is too decayed to be used, Engadget notes.

While the police have used such specialists to recreate molds of fingerprints from scans before, this is the first time they have done so in order to break into a phone.

One of the hurdles Jain and his team face is fooling the touch sensors on the smartphone into thinking the replica fingerprint is made of living skin. Engadget explains that because touch sensors require living skin to disrupt the electric surface, Jain is applying metallic particles to the replica to mimic the effect.

It will become apparent in the coming weeks whether Jain’s efforts have been successful.

In the meantime, it is fair to wonder whether technological advances will render fingerprint security locks obsolete. One day, a high-resolution photograph of your fingers could ostensibly be used to replicate your fingerprints for unsavory purposes.