Projects per year
Abstract
Presumptive (or ‘spot’) tests have served forensic scientists, law enforcement, and legal practitioners for over a hundred years. Yet, the intended design of such tests, enabling quick identification of drugs by-eye, also hides their full potential. Here, we report the development and application of time-resolved imaging methods of reactions attending spot tests for amphetamines, barbiturates, and benzodiazepines. Analysis of the reaction videos helps distinguish drugs within the same structural class that, by-eye, are judged to give the same qualitative spot test result. It is envisaged that application of these results will bridge the existing suite of field and lab-based confirmatory forensic tests, and support a broader range of colorimetric sensing technologies.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1143-1151 |
| Number of pages | 9 |
| Journal | Digital Discovery |
| Volume | 2 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| Early online date | 28 Jun 2023 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Aug 2023 |
Funding
The authors thank colleagues Alex Clunie, Lynn Curran, and Margaret Robinson, in the Centre for Forensic Science at the University of Strathclyde, for their support in acquiring and safe managing of the analytical samples of the drugs required for this study. MR thanks UK Research & Innovation for Future Leaders Fellowship funding (MR/T043458/1).
Keywords
- chemical presumptive tests
- drug testing
- spot tests
- computer vision
- forensics
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Dive into the research topics of 'Teaching old presumptive tests new digital tricks with computer vision for forensic applications'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.Projects
- 1 Finished
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Computer Vision for Analytical Chemistry (CVAC): Scalable Productivity for Chemical Manufacturing- UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship
Reid, M. (Fellow)
MRC (Medical Research Council)
1/02/21 → 31/01/25
Project: Research Fellowship