Fast fingerprint verification using sub-regions of fingerprint images.

Chan Ka Cheong.Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2004.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 77-85).Abstracts in English and Chinese.Chapter 1. --- Introduction --- p.1Chapter 1.1 --- Introduction to Fingerprint Verification --- p.1Chapter 1.1.1 --- Biometrics --- p.1Chapter 1.1.2 --- Fingerprint History --- p.2Chapter 1.1.3 --- Fingerprint characteristics --- p.4Chapter 1.1.4 --- A Generic Fingerprint Matching System Architecture --- p.6Chapter 1.1.5 --- Fingerprint Verification and Identification --- p.8Chapter 1.1.7 --- Biometric metrics --- p.10Chapter 1.2 --- Embedded system --- p.12Chapter 1.2.1 --- Introduction to embedded systems --- p.12Chapter 1.2.2 --- Embedded systems characteristics --- p.12Chapter 1.2.3 --- Performance evaluation of a StrongARM processor --- p.13Chapter 1.3 --- Objective -An embedded fingerprint verification system --- p.16Chapter 1.4 --- Organization of the Thesis --- p.17Chapter 2 --- Literature Reviews --- p.18Chapter 2.1 --- Fingerprint matching overviews --- p.18Chapter 2.1.1 --- Minutiae-based fingerprint matching --- p.20Chapter 2.2 --- Fingerprint image enhancement --- p.21Chapter 2.3 --- Orientation field Computation --- p.22Chapter 2.4 --- Fingerprint Segmentation --- p.24Chapter 2.5 --- Singularity Detection --- p.25Chapter 2.6 --- Fingerprint Classification --- p.27Chapter 2.7 --- Minutia extraction --- p.30Chapter 2.7.1 --- Binarization and thinning --- p.30Chapter 2.7.2 --- Direct gray scale approach --- p.32Chapter 2.7.3 --- Comparison of the minutiae extraction approaches --- p.35Chapter 2.8 --- Minutiae matching --- p.37Chapter 2.8.1 --- Point matching --- p.37Chapter 2.8.2 --- Structural matching technique --- p.38Chapter 2.9 --- Summary --- p.40Chapter 3. --- Implementation --- p.41Chapter 3.1 --- Fast Fingerprint Matching System Overview --- p.41Chapter 3.1.1 --- Typical Fingerprint Matching System --- p.41Chapter 3.1.2. --- Fast Fingerprint Matching System Overview --- p.41Chapter 3.2 --- Orientation computation --- p.43Chapter 3.21 --- Orientation computation --- p.43Chapter 3.22 --- Smooth orientation field --- p.43Chapter 3.3 --- Fingerprint image segmentation --- p.45Chapter 3.4 --- Reference Point Extraction --- p.46Chapter 3.5 --- A Classification Scheme --- p.51Chapter 3.6 --- Finding A Small Fingerprint Matching Area --- p.54Chapter 3.7 --- Fingerprint Matching --- p.57Chapter 3.8 --- Minutiae extraction --- p.59Chapter 3.8.1 --- Ridge tracing --- p.59Chapter 3.8.2 --- cross sectioning --- p.60Chapter 3.8.3 --- local maximum determination --- p.61Chapter 3.8.4 --- Ridge tracing marking --- p.62Chapter 3.8.5 --- Ridge tracing stop criteria --- p.63Chapter 3.9 --- Optimization technique --- p.65Chapter 3.10 --- Summary --- p.66Chapter 4. --- Experimental results --- p.67Chapter 4.1 --- Experimental setup --- p.67Chapter 4.2 --- Fingerprint database --- p.67Chapter 4.3 --- Reference point accuracy --- p.67Chapter 4.4 --- Variable number of matching minutiae results --- p.68Chapter 4.5 --- Contribution of the verification prototype --- p.72Chapter 5. --- Conclusion and Future Research --- p.74Chapter 5.1 --- Conclusion --- p.74Chapter 5.2 --- Future Research --- p.74Bibliography --- p.7

Knowledge based fingerprint image enhancement

Fingerprint enhancement is a critical step in fingerprint identification. Most of the existing enhancement algorithms are based on local ridge direction. The main drawback of these methods lies in the fact that false estimate of local ridge direction will lead to poor enhancement. But the estimate of local ridge directions is unreliable in the areas corrupted by noise where enhancement is most needed. In this paper, we proposed a rule-based method to do fingerprint enhancement. We introduced human knowledge about fingerprints into the enhancement process in the form of rules and simulate what an expert will do to enhance a fingerprint image. In our method, the skeleton image is used to give ridge connection information for th