The Polilight is a portable, high-intensity, filtered light source used by forensic scientists and others to detect

fingerprint A fingerprint is an impression left by the friction ridges of a human finger. The recovery of partial fingerprints from a crime scene is an important method of forensic science. Moisture and grease on a finger result in fingerprints on surfac ...

bodily fluids Body fluids, bodily fluids, or biofluids, sometimes body liquids, are liquids within the human body. In lean healthy adult men, the total body water is about 60% (60–67%) of the total body weight; it is usually slightly lower in women (52-55%) ...

and other

evidence Evidence for a proposition is what supports this proposition. It is usually understood as an indication that the supported proposition is true. What role evidence plays and how it is conceived varies from field to field. In epistemology, evidenc ...

from crime scenes and other places. Similar products to the Polilight Hola include the Foster + Freeman Crime-lite, Ultralite ALS and the Optimax Multilite, all of which use

light-emitting diode A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor device that emits light when current flows through it. Electrons in the semiconductor recombine with electron holes, releasing energy in the form of photons. The color of the light (cor ...

s to produce high-intensity light of varying wavelengths.

History

The device was invented by

Pierre Margot Pierre Margot is a Swiss people, Swiss forensics scientist known for his contribution to the invention of the first forensic light source Polilight for the detection of fingerprint, biological fluids and other evidence on the crime scene. This ...

, Ron Warrener, Hilton Kobus, Milutin Stoilovic and Chris Lennard. It was developed from a research project to find an alternative to the

laser A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation. The word "laser" is an acronym for "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation". The fir ...

method of fingerprint detection used in the 1970s. In the 1980s, the project began at the

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public research university located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton encompasses seven teaching and research colleges, in addition to several national academies and ...

. It was funded by the

Australian Federal Police The Australian Federal Police (AFP) is the national and principal federal law enforcement agency of the Australian Government with the unique role of investigating crime and protecting the national security of the Commonwealth of Australia. Th ...

. The university's commercial company, Anutech Pty Ltd, sold the concept to Rofin Australia Pty Ltd, who developed it into the Polilight. Several Polilight models have been released, including the Polilight 6/150W, Polilight 10/300W and the Polilight500, sometimes abbreviated to PL6, PL10 and PL500. The PL500 ('500' refers to the power in

watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James Wa ...

s of the

xenon Xenon is a chemical element with the symbol Xe and atomic number 54. It is a dense, colorless, odorless noble gas found in Earth's atmosphere in trace amounts. Although generally unreactive, it can undergo a few chemical reactions such as the ...

arc lamp) has eleven monochromatic bands, a ‘blank’ position that provides high intensity white light in the range from 380 to 650 nm and an optional infra-red output suitable for document examination. The Polilight was named by the Powerhouse Museum as one of the top 100 Australian innovations of the 20th century.Polilight forensic lamp
Powerhouse Museum. Its worldwide use was acknowledged by the Australian Export Awards in 2005.2005 Australian Export Awards, DSB December 2005.

References

{{Reflist, 2 Types of lamp Forensic equipment