Page 88 - VERITAS Vol.2 Issue 2

Developed by a team led by chemistry professors Michael Myrick

and Stephen Morgan from the University of South Carolina, it is

a technique that enhances the chemical contrast in thermographic

images by exposing the said questioned surface containing blood to

water vapour i.e., steam during imaging. This exposure generates
heat, aiding the increase of the thermographic ally-measured tem-

perature of the imaged surfaces. This can result in thermographic

contrast between surfaces with different chemical properties. For

blood stains, the enhancement capacity is measured by the radiant

heat transfer which warms up the blood and its backdrop.

REQUIREMENTS:
The use of a portable steamer is advised along with the heat imag-

ing IR-sensitive cameras. The thermal images are recorded through

a sodium chloride salt window by a FLIR Systems A315 microbo-

lometer-based camera (16-bit digitization, 240 x 320-pixel resolu-

tion, 30 Hz frame rate) which helps in the detection of even minute

amounts of blood.

REFERENCES:

• Belliveau III, R. (2019). Studies on the Mechanism and Applica-

tion of Steam Thermography. Theses and Dissertations. https://

scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/5549

• [Fig 1] Forensic Investigations Using Thermography and Steam.

www.flir.in. Retrieved February 9, 2023, from https://www.flir.

in/discover/rd-science/forensic-investigations-using-thermogra-
phy-and-steam/

79 Veritas Volume: 2, Issue: 2