There are many reasons why you want to examine documents. They may contain information that are difficult to read, and you need the help of writing experts to decode them for you. Documents may be used as evidence for a particular crime, such as identity theft, fraud, or forgery.
There are many tools that you can use when it comes to document examination. These include fingerprinting equipment, forgery detection system, and boom microscopes, to name a few.
Fingerprinting Equipment
Some surfaces such as wood and vinyl can leave fingerprints. They are mainly used to gather initial suspects of a specific crime. A common fingerprinting equipment used is the superglue cabinet, which may contain all the essential materials to lift finger marks and transfer them to a film.
Video Spectral Comparator
Depending on the ink being used, there are some writings that may not be visible by the naked eye but only at a particular light wavelength. The video spectral comparator permits you to look at documents in question at various light wavelengths, including infrared and UV light. You will also have to utilize a digital camera as well as a filter of your choice. You can then record the difference of the different inks being used for further comparison and analysis.
Portable Forgery Detection System
A forgery detection system can be truly excellent in order to determine counterfeit checks or documents associated with fraud and theft. The portable ones are the most ideal as you can practically use them in different ways. They are mostly utilized by border guards, immigration and customs officers, as well as police, who are actually the first persons who have instant access to such documents. They are your right alternative just in case you are experiencing intermittent or power failure, which render your main document examination machine useless. They are then placed in departure and arrival gates of airports and ports, crime scenes, or in mobile patrols.
A forgery detection system is capable of checking and verifying certain security features of a document. They can be detected without having to actually damage the document itself. The common light sources involve are the transmission light for identifying watermarks, oblique for checking dry stamps as well as indented writings, rand longwave ultraviolet to verify any alterations in the security safeguards.
VSC-1 and VSC-2CX
These types of instruments are used to determine the various optical properties of the questioned document. The VSC-2CX is useful in courtrooms, law offices, and other outside locations are they are easy to carry around.
Testing through VSC will not cause any damage to the document or modify the condition or look of your document. They are truly effective if you want to confirm any alterations in the documents and overwritten or obscured writing. They can also restore any entries that have been purposely erased. Most of all, they allow you to identify the different kinds of inks being used. This is because various kinds of inks have various ways of reacting to light sources, such as infrared and ultraviolet.
Optical Microscopes
The optical microscope is considered to be one of the most ultimate tools for document examiners. There are certain things that you cannot see by your naked eye. Microscopes will help you with that. The best types are the digital boom microscopes, which you can mount on your desk for better viewing. They are also equipped with a camera so you can capture certain areas of the questioned document that you want to assess further later.
Stereo microscopes also have the ability to inspect a document in three dimensions. However, standard types cannot generate the kinds of magnified images that you like, which you basically need to identify which of the intersecting entry is the original one. You may have to further support this with a binocular microscope complemented with coaxial illumination.
Software Tools
There are also available software which you can install into your computer systems. They are very useful if you are going to examine voluminous documents as they are simply automated and can check many on a daily basis. The document examination software can analyze the documents based on the slantness or connectedness of the writing as well as the darkness of the document. It may also produce quantitative analysis of their structure.
Name and Address Block Reader
The most difficult part of examining automated forms is reading addresses and names. The name and address block reader can directly read any hand-printed or scanned documents that contain names as well as documents.
Document examination tools are a plenty. You can find more at digitalboommicroscope.com.