COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF SIGNATURES MADE WITH STANDARD AND ELECTRONIC WRITING DEVICES: FOREIGN EXPERIENCE

Abstract

This article provides a general description of the concept of biodynamic electronic signature systems. A number of problems that may arise when displaying the image of an electronic signature on the screen of a tablet or other device are outlined. For example, one of the problems is that many of these signatures are recorded at low magnification, in which the effect of pixelation is present. Sometimes digital data constituting signatures are fixed or included in the document in the signature line in an unnatural way (for example, the natural size of the signature may be significantly reduced). Analyzing biodynamic electronic signatures also includes understanding the software and hardware used to capture the signature image. Differences that occur at the beginning of the signing process (when a person uses equipment such as a stylus or tablet) and in the methods by which signature measurements are recorded and processed according to the instructions laid out in the software are characterized. It is noted that forensic experts considered the listed differences to be significant enough to give rise to the possibility of a false conclusion, as they can be mistaken for autoforgeries or imitations of the original. That is, when comparing an electronic signature with samples of handwritten signatures, one should take into account a number of limiting factors that arise, among other things, due to differences in the writing surface and writing instruments. An example of an experiment conducted by handwriting experts from East Tennessee State University, located in Johnson City, USA, is provided. As part of this experiment, 16 subjects aged 25 to 69 years (15 right-handed, 1 left-handed, 14 women, 2 men) provided samples of their signatures using three different writing instruments: 1) ink ballpoint pen on paper; 2) digital pen (stylus) on the tablet screen; 3) computer mouse and PC monitor. Conclusions were made that emphasize not only that when writing such examinations it is important to pay attention to the differences in samples of electronic biodynamic and “traditional” signatures, but also the benefit of further research in this field of forensic handwriting.