NETPark leads way with new techology
Jan 29 2009 by Stewart Watkins, The Journal
WAY back in time, fingerprints were used to confirm business transactions, and as long ago as the 14th Century a Persian doctor stated that no two fingerprints were the same. Amazingly, even identical twins have different fingerprints.
Charles Darwin’s cousin, Sir Francis Galton, identified the individual ridge features used today and in 1892 he introduced a kit consisting of ink, blotter, roller, glass slide, turpentine and record books.
It wasn’t until a decade later that the first conviction based on the new system was made in the UK, although in 1892 one Francisca Rojas was convicted in Argentina of murdering her two young sons by the prints she left at the bloody scene.
It’s a far cry from the work carried out at NETPark by Roar Particles Ltd – set to revolutionise the market for latent fingerprint powders which record and define prints.
Formed in 2006, it’s a spin-out from the University of Sunderland. ROAR’s chief scientific officer, Professor Fred Rowell, has more than 34 years of research and development experience and is an expert on toxicology. ROAR already has a research partnership with Singapore and has demonstrated its technology to police forces around the world.
Nanotechnology-derived particles are at the heart of the company’s work. Rather than simply dusting to obtain fingerprints, Roar’s technology uses nanoengineered particles to harvest trace chemicals that may be in the prints for subsequent analysis.
These chemicals can show that you smoke or that you’re on prescribed drugs, for instance. They can also show that you’re on drugs that aren’t prescribed, or that you’ve handled explosives.
The security applications are obvious, especially as Roar is looking to extend the technology to carry out real time testing. No long delays while a sample goes off to a distant lab – the scanner will be right there in the airport or at a high-security building.
But it’s not just about making the world safer for travellers. The technology also has healthcare applications of benefit to individuals – to identify diabetes for example.
It’s a great example of why NETPark was established – to take the world class R&D being carried out in the region's universities and provide the facilities and the environment where it can be turned into commercially viable products, produced by new job-creating, wealth-generating companies.
Stewart Watkins is managing director of County Durham Development Company which is driving the development of NETPark and NETPark Net.
