Apparatus to produce a spatially and temporally uniform heat source is described and this is used to visualize latent fingerprints deposited onto thermal paper by raising the temperature of the paper. Results show an improvement over previous techniques, particularly when fingerprint deposits are aged or the developed fingerprints faint; visualization being enhanced by the use of an LED light source. An investigation of the components in fingerprint sweat likely to affect the solubility and hence colour change of the dye present in the thermal paper has shown that polar protic solvents able to donate a proton are favoured and a polar amino acid found commonly in eccrine fingerprint sweat (lysine) has been shown able to produce the desired colour change. Aged fingerprint deposits on thermal paper from a variety of sources up to four years old have been visualized with this technique.

A recording medium has a substrate and a first color developing layer, a heat insulating layer and a second color developing layer laminated on the substrate in this order. The first color developing layer develops a first color at a temperature not less than a first threshold value. The second color developing layer develops a second color that is different from the first color at a temperature not less than a second threshold value that is higher than the first threshold value. The heat insulating layer has a first heat insulating layer of a first heat conductivity and a second heat insulating layer of a second heat conductivity that is higher than the first heat conductivity, which are laminated in a second direction orthogonal to a first direction in which the first color developing layer, the heat insulating layer, and the second color developing layer are laminated on the substrate.

A drawing method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure includes, when performing drawing on a thermal recording medium that includes a light-transmitting member above a recording layer, obtaining information regarding the light-transmitting member, predicting an optical axis deviation of a laser beam in the recording layer from the information regarding the light-transmitting member, and calculating a correction amount from a result of the prediction of the optical axis deviation.

A drawing method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure includes, when performing drawing on a thermal recording medium that includes a light-transmitting member above a recording layer, obtaining information regarding the light-transmitting member, predicting an optical axis deviation of a laser beam in the recording layer from the information regarding the light-transmitting member, and calculating a correction amount from a result of the prediction of the optical axis deviation.

A drawing and erasing apparatus includes a light source section that includes a plurality of laser elements different from each other in emission wavelength, a multiplexer that multiplexes a plurality of types of laser light beams outputted from the plurality of laser elements, a scanner section that performs scanning with multiplexed light outputted from the multiplexer on a reversible recording medium including a plurality of recording layers, the plurality of recording layers being reversible and different from each other in developed color hue, and a controller that controls a main scanning speed and a sub-scanning speed of the scanner section to cause the scanner section to perform overlapping scanning of a predetermined region on the reversible recording medium during erasure of information written on the reversible recording medium.

An example system for thermal energy determination can include a first controller comprising a processor and a non-transitory machine-readable medium (MRM) communicatively coupled to the processor. The non-transitory MRM can include instructions executable by the processor to cause the processor to receive relative humidity information of an environment of a thermal printing device, determine a colormap to a print media of the thermal printing device based on the relative humidity, and determine a particular thermal energy to apply to the print media based on the determined colormap.

A forgery prevention medium includes a substrate and a specific invisible material layer directly or indirectly laminated on the substrate, having a specific invisible material reversibly and visually recognized through a predetermined process disposed thereon in a plane shape, and having a part of the specific invisible material inactivated in accordance with a visualized image pattern.

Hollow resin particles for thermosensitive recording media containing a thermoplastic resin shell and a hollow part surrounded by the shell. The hollow resin particles contain a thermally-vaporizable hydrocarbon in an encapsulation ratio of at least 0.2 wt %. The hollow resin particles preferably have a mean volume particle size ranging from 0.1 to 10 μm.

A recording medium according to one embodiment of the present disclosure includes a recording layer and an optical thin film. The recording layer includes a heat-sensitive color-developing composition and a photothermal conversion material. The photothermal conversion material absorbs a wavelength in an infrared region and generates heat. The optical thin film is provided on one surface of the recording layer. The optical thin film reflects the wavelength in the infrared region and transmits a wavelength in a visible region.

A heat transfer process on to a stainless steel cup with a dark surface involves a stainless steel dark surface treatment layer arranged on a base layer of the outer circular surface of the cup body. The stainless steel dark surface treatment layer is sequentially arranged as at least one wire screen printing layer, a resin layer, and a thermal transfer image layer. The is one or several screen printing layers on the dark rough surface to fill up the rough pits on the dark surface to form a smooth surface and then a thermal transfer resin coating is applied, followed by heat transfer printing. A colorful personalized product can thus be produced from the cup.