A systematic method for fingerprint ridge orientation estimation and image segmentation

This paper proposes a scheme for systematically estimating fingerprint ridge orientation and segmenting fingerprint image by means of evaluating the correctness of the ridge orientation based on neural network. The neural network is used to learn the correctness of the estimated orientation by gradient-based method. The trained network is able to distinguish correct and incorrect ridge orientations, and as a consequence, the falsely estimated ridge orientation of a local image block can be corrected using the around blocks of which orientations are correctly estimated. A coarse segmentation can also be done based on the trained neural network by taking the blocks of correctly estimated orientation as foreground and the blocks of incorrectly estimated orientation as background. Besides, following the steps of estimating ridge orientation correctness, a secondary segmentation method is proposed to segment the remaining ridges which are the afterimage of the previously scanned fingers. The proposed scheme serves for minutiae detection and is compared with VeriFinger 4.2 published by Neurotechnologija Ltd. in 2004, and the comparison shows that the proposed scheme leads to an improved accuracy of minutiae detection.     

Fingerprint-Based Fuzzy Vault: Implementation and Performance

Reliable information security mechanisms are required to combat the rising magnitude of identity theft in our society. While cryptography is a powerful tool to achieve information security, one of the main challenges in cryptosystems is to maintain the secrecy of the cryptographic keys. Though biometric authentication can be used to ensure that only the legitimate user has access to the secret keys, a biometric system itself is vulnerable to a number of threats. A critical issue in biometric systems is to protect the template of a user which is typically stored in a database or a smart card. The fuzzy vault construct is a biometric cryptosystem that secures both the secret key and the biometric template by binding them within a cryptographic framework. We present a fully automatic implementation of the fuzzy vault scheme based on fingerprint minutiae. Since the fuzzy vault stores only a transformed version of the template, aligning the query fingerprint with the template is a challenging task. We extract high curvature points derived from the fingerprint orientation field and use them as helper data to align the template and query minutiae. The helper data itself do not leak any information about the minutiae template, yet contain sufficient information to align the template and query fingerprints accurately. Further, we apply a minutiae matcher during decoding to account for nonlinear distortion and this leads to significant improvement in the genuine accept rate. We demonstrate the performance of the vault implementation on two different fingerprint databases. We also show that performance improvement can be achieved by using multiple fingerprint impressions during enrollment and verification.     

一种采用脊线特征的指纹模糊匹配方法

针对目前指纹识别系统主要采用手指上细节点的分布来表征和匹配指纹,提出了一种采用指纹脊线特征的匹配算法,以提高细节点数量较少情况下的匹配精度.在特征提取阶段,通过脊线采样,只存储脊线采样点集以降低存储量;在匹配时,对欲匹配的两指纹利用细节特征配准脊线集,在重合区域内对两指纹脊线统一进行编码,通过编码的比较确定相似脊线;以相似脊线的相同位置编码为论域,以相同位置编码的相似程度为隶属度,建立衡量脊线相似程度的模糊集,采用加权平均法对多个相似脊线模糊集进行综合评判得到两指纹脊线总体相似度.最后将脊线匹配相似度与细节点匹配相似度进行加权融合得到两指纹最终的相似度.在FVC2004指纹库上的实验表明该算法能够有效提高指纹匹配的准确性.     

一种基于机器学习的指纹纹路方向计算方法

纹路方向是指纹图像的基本特征,而方向计算是指纹识别的基础,特征提取和匹配的过程中都需要用到方向.目前大多数纹路方向计算方法都是基于像素之间的灰度关系的.提出了一种用神经网络学习纹路方向的方法.对于正确的纹路方向,该网络的响应值较大;对于错误的纹路方向,该网络的响应值较小.计算指纹图像的方向场时,对于每个纹路图像块,计算网络在各个方向上的响应值,基于每个图像块在每个方向上的响应值可以计算出整个图像的方向场.该方法比现有方法更能正确地计算指纹图像方向场.     

基于细节点投影的可撤销指纹模板生成算法

为了改善指纹模板保护算法的可撤销性、不可逆性等性能,设计了一种基于细节点投影的可撤销指纹模板生成算法.首先对指纹图像进行预处理,提取指纹的细节点特征,并筛选出采样半径范围内的有效细节点,然后对细节点进行直线投影,将投影后的向量映射到二维网格,生成固定长度的一维比特串,再结合用户PIN码生成可撤销指纹模板.在指纹数据库FVC2002-DB1和DB2上的实验结果表明,该算法不仅提高了指纹模板认证的稳定性,而且在可撤销性、不可逆性和安全性等方面均具有较好性能.     

改进的指纹细节特征提取算法

指纹细节特征（minutiae)提取是指纹自动识别的核心技术之一，常规的指纹细节特征提取算法需要先采用纹线跟踪的方法对细化后的指纹图象进行纹线修复，然后再实现细节特征提取，纹线修复不仅步骤繁琐，而且比较耗时，针对这一问题，提出了一种改进的指纹细节特征提取算法，该算法首先在细化后的指纹图象上直接提取原始细节特征点集，然后分析图象中存在的各类噪声及其特点，总结伪特征点的分布规律，最后，结合局部纹线方向信息，针对不同的噪声，采用针对性的算法，将各类噪声引起的伪特征点分别予以删除，最终保留下来的特征点集即视为真正的特征点集，为验证该算法的性能，将改进算法与常规算法进行了对比实验，实验结果表明，改进算法有效地减少了计算时间，细节特征提取准确率也基本可以满足应用的需要。     

Fingerprint reconstruction: from minutiae to phase

Fingerprint matching systems generally use four types of representation schemes: grayscale image, phase image, skeleton image, and minutiae, among which minutiae-based representation is the most widely adopted one. The compactness of minutiae representation has created an impression that the minutiae template does not contain sufficient information to allow the reconstruction of the original grayscale fingerprint image. This belief has now been shown to be false; several algorithms have been proposed that can reconstruct fingerprint images from minutiae templates. These techniques try to either reconstruct the skeleton image, which is then converted into the grayscale image, or reconstruct the grayscale image directly from the minutiae template. However, they have a common drawback: Many spurious minutiae not included in the original minutiae template are generated in the reconstructed image. Moreover, some of these reconstruction techniques can only generate a partial fingerprint. In this paper, a novel fingerprint reconstruction algorithm is proposed to reconstruct the phase image, which is then converted into the grayscale image. The proposed reconstruction algorithm not only gives the whole fingerprint, but the reconstructed fingerprint contains very few spurious minutiae. Specifically, a fingerprint image is represented as a phase image which consists of the continuous phase and the spiral phase (which corresponds to minutiae). An algorithm is proposed to reconstruct the continuous phase from minutiae. The proposed reconstruction algorithm has been evaluated with respect to the success rates of type-I attack (match the reconstructed fingerprint against the original fingerprint) and type-II attack (match the reconstructed fingerprint against different impressions of the original fingerprint) using a commercial fingerprint recognition system. Given the reconstructed image from our algorithm, we show that both types of attacks can be successfully launched against a fingerprint recognition system.     

基于细节点邻域信息的可撤销指纹模板生成算法

为了提高指纹模板算法的安全性等性能,设计了一种基于细节点邻域信息的可撤销指纹模板生成算法.首先对指纹图像进行预处理,提取指纹的细节点特征,然后采用改进的细节点描述子采样结构提取细节点邻域的纹线特征,最后结合用户PIN码生成指纹模板,同时结合贪婪算法设计了相应的指纹匹配算法.在指纹数据库FVC2002-DB1和DB2上的实验表明,该算法具有良好的认证性能,能较好地满足可撤销性、多样性和不可逆性,而且改进的采样结构在没有降低系统识别性能的情况下,进一步拓展了细节点描述子的采样结构方式.     

Fingerprint image enhancement: algorithm and performance evaluation

In order to ensure that the performance of an automatic fingerprint identification/verification system will be robust with respect to the quality of input fingerprint images, it is essential to incorporate a fingerprint enhancement algorithm in the minutiae extraction module. We present a fast fingerprint enhancement algorithm, which can adaptively improve the clarity of ridge and valley structures of input fingerprint images based on the estimated local ridge orientation and frequency. We have evaluated the performance of the image enhancement algorithm using the goodness index of the extracted minutiae and the accuracy of an online fingerprint verification system. Experimental results show that incorporating the enhancement algorithm improves both the goodness index and the verification accuracy     

一种结合结构信息的指纹细节点特征提取算法

提出了一种新的指纹特征提取方法,引入细节点与中心点的角度差以及细节点到中心点所穿越的脊线数作为细节特征的向量,采用一种改进的Bresenham 画线算法计算穿越的脊线数,提取出了指纹图像的特征信息。实验表明该算法能准确有效地提取出指纹图像的结构特征信息。     

Detecting fingerprint minutiae by run length encoding scheme

Many approaches to minutiae extraction have already been proposed for automatic fingerprint matching, and most transform fingerprint images into binary images through state-of-the-art algorithms and submit the binary image to a thinning process. However, this paper proposes an original technique for extracting minutiae based on representing the ridge structure of a fingerprint image as a run length code (RLC). The essential idea is to detect minutiae by searching for the termination points or bifurcation points of ridges in the RLC, rather than in a fingerprint image. Experimental results and a comparative analysis show that the proposed method is fairly reliable and faster than a conventional thinning-based method.     

一种新的残留指纹图像分割方法

指纹图像分割主要是去除非脊线区域、不可恢复的脊线区域和残留脊线区域,提高特征提取的准确率和减少图像处理的时间。一般说来,残留脊线具有清晰的脊线结构,单单采用基于指纹图像的特征参数很难将其有效分割。本文提出了两级分割的方法,首先通过面积参数去除分离的残留脊线区域;然后在二级分割中利用形状参数将粘连的残留脊线区域分割掉。实验结果表明,基于本文方法的细节点检测的准确率更高。     

Modelling fingerprint ridge orientation using Legendre polynomials

The estimation of fingerprint ridge orientation is an essential step in every automatic fingerprint verification system. The importance of ridge orientation can be deflected from the fact that it is inevitably used for detecting, describing and matching fingerprint features such as minutiae and singular points. In this paper we propose a novel method for fingerprint ridge orientation modelling using Legendre polynomials. One of the main problems it addresses is smoothing orientation data while preserving details in high curvature areas, especially singular points. We show that singular points, which result in a discontinuous orientation field, can be modelled by the zero-poles of Legendre polynomials. The models parameters are obtained in a two staged optimization procedure. Another advantage of the proposed method is a very compact representation of the orientation field, using only 56 coefficients. We have carried out extensive experiments using a state-of-the-art fingerprint matcher and a singular point detector. Moreover, we compared the proposed method with other state-of-the-art fingerprint orientation estimation algorithms. We can report significant improvements in both singular point detection and matching rates.     

基于B样条曲线的指纹Fuzzy Vault对齐方法

指纹设备采集到的指纹图像由于不能用统一的参照表示指纹细节点的坐标,因此,同一枚指纹分别在录入和注册时得到的指纹细节点需要对齐。本文采用指纹纹线作为指纹Fuzzy vault对齐的方法,在目标纹线上提取B样条控制点,用这些控制点数据与纹线的距离作为辅助数据来对齐指纹模板。研究分析表明这种方法不会泄露指纹细节点的任何信息。实验结果证明,这种方法具有很好的实时性并能提高指纹Fuzzy vault的配准率。     

一种基于分叉点脊线相似度的指纹匹配算法*

研究了一种基于分叉点脊线相似度的指纹匹配算法,利用可靠性较高的分叉点所在脊线的相似程度寻找出可能的基准细节点对;同时为解决基准点筛选受噪声影响的问题,提出使用基准点与周围四个特征点组成子集之间的相互关系来确定最终的基准点对和变换参数的方法;最后利用可变限界盒来实现两枚指纹的匹配。实验结果表明,本算法可以快速、准确地定位基准点,精确地求取变换参数,能够正确、快速地实现指纹匹配。     

一种指纹合成的方法及其实现

提出并实现了一种指纹合成方法.该方法通过新的联合方向场模型生成更加符合真实指纹的方向场,并提出一种新的指纹密度图的表示方法.然后,通过改进的Gabor滤波器生成指纹脊线纹理.该方法包括两个主要步骤:首先,经过指纹方向场生成、密度图生成和脊线纹理生成产生一个指纹模板图像;然后对指纹模板图像进行一系列变换,包括添加划痕、纹理平移、脊线的膨胀/腐蚀、脊线的弹性形变、脊线的加噪和平滑、图像的平移和旋转、改变对比度、添加背景噪声,最终得到类似于真实指纹的合成指纹图像.基于该方法的指纹生成器平台,已在2004年中国生     

基于投影信号谱分析的指纹纹线间距估计方法

准确估计指纹纹线间距对指纹图像分割、增强及指纹细节特征提取具有重要意义。针对现有纹线间距估计方法存在的不足,提出了一种基于纹线方向投影信号谱分析的指纹纹线间距估计方法。该方法首先对指纹块方向图进行选择性平滑以滤除噪声干扰,然后计算方向投影信号的傅立叶变换能量谱,并通过谱分析提取信号基频,以此估计出纹线间距。实验结果表明,与现有的一些典型方法相比,该文方法对于纹线间距的估计更为准确、可靠。     

Fingerprint warping using ridge curve correspondences

The performance of a fingerprint matching system is affected by the nonlinear deformation introduced in the fingerprint impression during image acquisition. This nonlinear deformation causes fingerprint features such as minutiae points and ridge curves to be distorted in a complex manner. A technique is presented to estimate the nonlinear distortion in fingerprint pairs based on ridge curve correspondences. The nonlinear distortion, represented using the thin-plate spline (TPS) function, aids in the estimation of an "average" deformation model for a specific finger when several impressions of that finger are available. The estimated average deformation is then utilized to distort the template fingerprint prior to matching it with an input fingerprint. The proposed deformation model based on ridge curves leads to a better alignment of two fingerprint images compared to a deformation model based on minutiae patterns. An index of deformation is proposed for selecting the "optimal" deformation model arising from multiple impressions associated with a finger. Results based on experimental data consisting of 1,600 fingerprints corresponding to 50 different fingers collected over a period of two weeks show that incorporating the proposed deformation model results in an improvement in the matching performance.     

引入脊线结构信息的指纹匹配方法

提出了一种利用脊线和脊线结构信息进行指纹匹配的方法,即首先利用脊线的相似度初步确定若干参考点对,然后根据脊线间的结构信息利用矢量三角法对初步确定的参考点对进行筛选,最后用可变限界盒法进行匹配。实验结果表明,该方法能够准确地定位参考点对,快速正确地实现指纹匹配。