Comparative Study of Fingerprint Database Indexing Methods

International audienceNowadays, there are large country-sized fingerprint databases for identification purposes, for border access controls and also for Visa issuance procedures around the world. Fingerprint indexing techniques aim to speed up the research process in automatic fingerprint identification systems. Therefore, several preselection, classification and indexing techniques have been proposed in the literature. However, the proposed systems have been evaluated with different experimental protocols, that makes it difficult to assess their performances. The main objective of this paper is to provide a comparative study of fingerprint indexing methods using a common experimental protocol. Four fingerprint indexing methods, using naive, cascade, matcher and Minutiae Cylinder Code (MCC) approaches are evaluated on FVC databases from the Fingerprint Verification Competition (FVC) using the Cumulative Matches Curve (CMC) and for the first time using also the computing time required. Our study shows that MCC gives the best compromise between identification accuracy and computation time

Identifying individuals from average quality fingerprint reference templates, when the best do not provide the best results !

International audienceThe fingerprint is one of the most used biometric modalities because of its persistence, uniqueness characteristics and ease of acquisition. Nowadays, there are large country-sized fingerprint databases for identification purposes, for border access controls and also for Visa issuance procedures around the world. The objective usually is to identify an input fingerprint among a large fingerprint database. In order to achieve this goal, different fingerprint pre-selection, classification or indexing techniques have been developed to speed up the research process to avoid comparison of the input fingerprint template against each fingerprint in the database. Although these methods are fairly accurate for identification process, we think that all of them assume the hypothesis to have a good quality of the fingerprint template for the first step of enrollment. In this paper, we show how the quality of reference templates can impact the performance of identification algorithms. We collect information and implement differents methods from the state of the art of fingerprint identification. Then, for these differents methods, we vary the quality of reference templates by using NFIQ2 metric quality. This allowed us to build a benchmark in order to evaluate the impact of these different enrollment scenarios on identification

Fingerprint Direct-Access Strategy Using Local-Star-Structure-based Discriminator Features: A Comparison Study

This paper describes a comparison study of the proposed fingerprint direct-access strategy using local-star-topology-based discriminator features, including internal comparison among different concerned configurations, and external comparison to the other strategies. Through careful minutiae-based feature extraction, hashing-based indexing-retrieval mechanism, variable-threshold-on-score-ratio-based candidate-list reduction technique, and hill-climbing learning process, this strategy was considered promising, as confirmed by the experiment results. For particular aspect of external accuracy comparison, this strategy outperformed the others over three public data sets, i.e. up to Penetration Rate (PR) 5%, it consistently gave lower Error Rate (ER). By taking sample at PR 5%, this strategy produced ER 4%, 10%, and 1% on FVC2000 DB2A, FVC2000 DB3A, and FVC2002 DB1A, respectively. Another perspective if accuracy performance was based on area under curve of graph ER and PR, this strategy neither is the best nor the worst strategy on FVC2000 DB2A and FVC2000 DB3A, while on FVC2002 DB1A it outperfomed the others and even it gave impressive results for index created by three impressions per finger (with or without NT) by ideal step down curve where PR equal to 1% can always be maintained for smaller ER.DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.11591/ijece.v4i5.658

A critical review of the current state of forensic science knowledge and its integration in legal systems

Forensic science has a significant historical and contemporary relationship with the criminal justice system. It is a relationship between two disciplines whose origins stem from different backgrounds. It is trite that effective communication assist in resolving underlying problems in any given context. However, a lack of communication continues to characterise the intersection between law and science. As recently as 2019, a six-part symposium on the use of forensic science in the criminal justice system again posed the question on how the justice system could ensure the reliability of forensic science evidence presented during trials. As the law demands finality, science is always evolving and can never be considered finite or final. Legal systems do not always adapt to the nature of scientific knowledge, and are not willing to abandon finality when that scientific knowledge shifts. Advocacy plays an important role in the promotion of forensic science, particularly advocacy to the broader scientific community for financial support, much needed research and more testing. However, despite its important function, advocacy should not be conflated with science. The foundation of advocacy is a cause; whereas the foundation of science is fact. The objective of this research was to conduct a qualitative literature review of the field of forensic science; to identify gaps in the knowledge of forensic science and its integration in the criminal justice system. The literature review will provide researchers within the field of forensic science with suggested research topics requiring further examination and research. To achieve its objective, the study critically analysed the historical development of, and evaluated the use of forensic science evidence in legal systems generally, including its role regarding the admissibility or inadmissibility of the evidence in the courtroom. In conclusion, it was determined that the breadth of forensic scientific knowledge is comprehensive but scattered. The foundational underpinning of the four disciplines, discussed in this dissertation, has been put to the legal test on countless occasions. Some gaps still remain that require further research in order to strengthen the foundation of the disciplines. Human influence will always be present in examinations and interpretations and will lean towards subjective decision making.JurisprudenceD. Phil