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.     

模糊几何和纹理特征在指纹细节点后处理中的应用

指纹识别一般基于指纹细节点匹配，当指纹图像质量较差时，细节点的可靠提取十分困难，通常会产生大量的虚假细节点．为提高细节点的精度，给出一种在原始灰度指纹图像上进行细节点后处理验证的方法．在每个自动提取出的细节点上取其在原始灰度指纹图像上的局部邻域，分析邻域图像的模糊几何特征和纹理特征，然后用MLP神经网络对提取出的局部邻域特征进行分类，实现细节点类型验证．实验结果表明：文中方法能有效地去除大量的虚假细节点，与其他方法相比具有较高精度．     

基于细节点柱形编码和深度卷积特征的指纹检索方法

指纹检索方法使用细节点柱形编码作为特征,充分考虑指纹细节点的局部结构特征,却忽略指纹的整体结构特征,限制指纹检索的准确率.基于此种问题,文中提出基于细节点柱形编码和深度卷积特征的指纹检索方法.使用深度卷积网络学习指纹的整体结构特征(深度卷积特征),并结合深度卷积特征和细节点柱形编码,提升指纹检索的准确率.在3个经典指纹检索数据库上通过实验分析深度卷积特征的特性.实验表明,文中方法有效提升指纹检索的准确率.     

基于TPS模板的弹性形变指纹的匹配算法的研究

为了克服指纹图像获取过程中的非线性形变,本文提出一种新的细节点匹配算法.该算法基于TPS(the thin-plate spline)模板,分为局部匹配和全局匹配两部分.通过建立与该模板一致的匹配算法,用很小的匹配阈值算出匹配细节点的数目,得到较高的匹配分数.实验表明,这种算法能很好的校准弹性形变指纹,提高了指纹识别系统的实用性.     

利用去除形变的方法进行指纹匹配

提出了一种基于细节点的指纹匹配方法。定义了一种新的结构邻接特征联合体(AFU),并用这个与旋转和平移无关的局部特征与指纹细节点进行比对;利用纹路的频率和块方向信息对细节点的位置和方向进行重新调整以增加匹配的可靠性。实验结果表明该方法可以很好地处理指纹中出现的形变问题,具有较好的匹配效果。     

Fingerprint Verification Using Spectral Minutiae Representations

Most fingerprint recognition systems are based on the use of a minutiae set, which is an unordered collection of minutiae locations and orientations suffering from various deformations such as translation, rotation, and scaling. The spectral minutiae representation introduced in this paper is a novel method to represent a minutiae set as a fixed-length feature vector, which is invariant to translation, and in which rotation and scaling become translations, so that they can be easily compensated for. These characteristics enable the combination of fingerprint recognition systems with template protection schemes that require a fixed-length feature vector. This paper introduces the concept of algorithms for two representation methods: the location-based spectral minutiae representation and the orientation-based spectral minutiae representation. Both algorithms are evaluated using two correlation-based spectral minutiae matching algorithms. We present the performance of our algorithms on three fingerprint databases. We also show how the performance can be improved by using a fusion scheme and singular points.      

指纹图像细节点及显著特征的提取

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像上直接提取原始细节特征点集,然后针对不同的噪声,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。通过分析细节特征点之间的联系,在整幅图像范围内构造了3种类型的显著特征,提出了一种显著特征提取算法,在已提取的特征点集的基础上,提取出指纹图像的显著特征。     

Fingerprint minutiae extraction based on principal curves

It is important to extract minutiae of a fingerprint for the implementation of an auto fingerprint identification system. In this paper, the principal graph algorithm proposed by Kegl is used to obtain principal curves, which can be served as the skeletons of a fingerprint. Based on the obtained principal curves, a minutiae extraction algorithm is proposed to extract minutiae of the fingerprint. The experimental results indicate that principal curves obtained from the principal graph algorithm are smoother than the ones obtained from thinning algorithm, and the minutiae extracted by the proposed algorithm are more efficient.     

一种改进的自适应保细节中值滤波算法

中值滤波是常用的降噪算法,它可以保留比较尖锐的边界,但是却容易模糊图象的细节。尽管已经有一些改进算法,但效果并不十分理想。文章介绍了一种保细节中值滤波算法,采用了多尺度多方向的窗口,根据图象各部分特性自适应地选择窗口进行中值滤波。实验结果证明,文章的算法优于其他几种常用的中值滤波算法。     

指纹识别中的特征点提取算法

指纹特征的提取在指纹自动识别系统中足一个必不可少的重要环节.根据指纹的固有规律,提出了一套较完整的指纹图像特征提取和伪特征去除算法,指纹特征提取是从细化后的指纹图像中得到的细节特征点(即端点和分叉点),其中含有大量的伪特征,根据伪特征点的结构,在特征提取之后对伪特征点进行去除,主要对毛刺和短脊进行去除.实验结果表明,该算法大大提高了指纹识别时的精度,并具有较强的抗干扰性.通过对上百幅不同质量的指纹图像进行测试,获得了较好的效果.     

Improving automated latent fingerprint identification using extended minutia types

Latent fingerprints are usually processed with Automated Fingerprint Identification Systems (AFIS) by law enforcement agencies to narrow down possible suspects from a criminal database. AFIS do not commonly use all discriminatory features available in fingerprints but typically use only some types of features automatically extracted by a feature extraction algorithm. In this work, we explore ways to improve rank identification accuracies of AFIS when only a partial latent fingerprint is available. Towards solving this challenge, we propose a method that exploits extended fingerprint features (unusual/rare minutiae) not commonly considered in AFIS. This new method can be combined with any existing minutiae-based matcher. We first compute a similarity score based on least squares between latent and tenprint minutiae points, with rare minutiae features as reference points. Then the similarity score of the reference minutiae-based matcher at hand is modified based on a fitting error from the least square similarity stage. We use a realistic forensic fingerprint casework database in our experiments which contains rare minutiae features obtained from Guardia Civil, the Spanish law enforcement agency. Experiments are conducted using three minutiae-based matchers as a reference, namely: NIST-Bozorth3, VeriFinger-SDK and MCC-SDK. We report significant improvements in the rank identification accuracies when these minutiae matchers are augmented with our proposed algorithm based on rare minutiae features.     

Learning fingerprint minutiae location and type

For simplicity of pattern recognition system design, a sequential approach consisting of sensing, feature extraction and classification/matching is conventionally adopted, where each stage transforms its input relatively independently. In practice, the interaction between these modules is limited. Some of the errors in this end-to-end sequential processing can be eliminated, especially for the feature extraction stage, by revisiting the input pattern. We propose a feedforward of the original grayscale image data to a feature (minutiae) verification stage in the context of a minutiae-based fingerprint verification system. This minutiae verification stage is based on reexamining the grayscale profile in a detected minutia's spatial neighborhood in the sensed image. We also show that a feature refinement (minutiae classification) stage that assigns one of two class labels to each detected minutia (ridge ending and ridge bifurcation) can improve the matching accuracy by ∼1% and when combined with the proposed minutiae verification stage, the matching accuracy can be improved by ∼3.2% on our fingerprint database.     

指纹特征规模研究

自动指纹识别系统是通过对指纹的特征(节点)进行匹配对比来实现识别认证的,识别的效果主要取决于指纹输入设备、特征提取和匹配算法.为了研究指纹输入设备和特征提取算法对识别精度的影响,在已知指纹特征位置分布的情况下,建立了指纹特征匹配的数学模型,通过计算两枚指纹匹配的概率,引入了指纹特征规模的概念,它是对指纹输入设备和特征提取算法的一个综合评价.最终得到结论:若节点匹配的数目不变,可以通过降低指纹的特征规模,来提高识别精度;若系统的特征规模不变,可以通过增加节点匹配的数目,来提高系统识别精度.     

A New Autom ated Fingerprint Identification System

A new automated fingerpring identification system is proposed.In this system,based on some local properties of digital image,the shape and minutiae features of fingerprint can be extracted from the grey level image without binarizing and thinning.In query,a latent fingerprint can be matched with the filed fingerprints by shape and/or minutiae features.Matching by shape features is much faster than by minutiae.     

一种基于信息融合的指纹特征点提取方法

针对进行指纹图像预处理时产生的伪特征点难以消除的问题,提出了一种基于信息融合的指纹特征点提取方法;该方法首先通过取两种不同预处理方法所获得的指纹特征点集的交集来剔除在指纹图像预处理过程中所产生的伪特征点,然后根据特征点的结构信息来消除原始指纹图像本身所存在的伪特征点;实验结果表明,该方法不仅可以有效地消除指纹图像预处理过程所产生的伪特征点,同时也能消除原始指纹图像中存在的伪特征点。     

Local binary patterns for a hybrid fingerprint matcher

In this work, we present a novel hybrid fingerprint matcher system based on local binary patterns. The two fingerprints to be matched are first aligned using their minutiae, then the images are decomposed in several overlapping sub-windows, each sub-window is convolved with a bank of Gabor filters and, finally, the invariant local binary patterns histograms are extracted from the convolved images.Extensive experiments conducted over the four FVC2002 fingerprint databases show the effectiveness of the proposed hybrid approach with respect to the well-known Tico's minutiae matcher and other image-based approaches. Moreover, a BioHashing approach have been designed using the proposed fixed-length feature vector and very interesting performance has been obtained by combining it with the Tico's minutiae matcher.     

基于深度学习的小面积指纹匹配方法

针对传统的基于细节特征点的指纹匹配方法多适用于采集面积较大的指纹,在面向智能手机端的小采集面积指纹时准确率明显下降的问题,提出一种基于深度学习的小面积指纹匹配方法。首先,提取指纹图像的细节特征点信息;其次,搜索和标定感兴趣纹理区域（ROI）;然后,构建并改进基于残差结构的轻量级深度神经网络,通过采用二值化特征模式优化网络和Triplet Loss方式训练模型;最后,制定一种智能手机端注册-匹配策略实现小面积指纹匹配。实验结果表明,提出方法在公开库FVCDB1与自建数据库上的等错率（EER）分别仅为0.50%与0.58%,远低于传统的基于细节特征点的指纹匹配方法,能够有效提升小面积指纹匹配的性能,更好地满足智能手机端的应用需求。     

Fingerprint matching based on global alignment of multiple reference minutiae

Fingerprint matching is an important problem in fingerprint identification. A set of minutiae is usually used to represent a fingerprint. Most existing fingerprint identification systems match two fingerprints using minutiae-based method. Typically, they choose a reference minutia from the template fingerprint and the query fingerprint, respectively. When matching the two sets of minutiae, the template and the query, firstly reference minutiae pair is aligned coordinately and directionally, and secondly the matching score of the rest minutiae is evaluated. This method guarantees satisfactory alignments of regions adjacent to the reference minutiae. However, the alignments of regions far away from the reference minutiae are usually not so satisfactory. In this paper, we propose a minutia matching method based on global alignment of multiple pairs of reference minutiae. These reference minutiae are commonly distributed in various fingerprint regions. When matching, these pairs of reference minutiae are to be globally aligned, and those region pairs far away from the original reference minutiae will be aligned more satisfactorily. Experiment shows that this method leads to improvement in system identification performance.     

From template to image: reconstructing fingerprints from minutiae points

Most fingerprint-based biometric systems store the minutiae template of a user in the database. It has been traditionally assumed that the minutiae template of a user does not reveal any information about the original fingerprint. In this paper, we challenge this notion and show that three levels of information about the parent fingerprint can be elicited from the minutiae template alone, viz., 1) the orientation field information, 2) the class or type information, and 3) the friction ridge structure. The orientation estimation algorithm determines the direction of local ridges using the evidence of minutiae triplets. The estimated orientation field, along with the given minutiae distribution, is then used to predict the class of the fingerprint. Finally, the ridge structure of the parent fingerprint is generated using streamlines that are based on the estimated orientation field. Line integral convolution is used to impart texture to the ensuing ridges, resulting in a ridge map resembling the parent fingerprint. The salient feature of this noniterative method to generate ridges is its ability to preserve the minutiae at specified locations in the reconstructed ridge map. Experiments using a commercial fingerprint matcher suggest that the reconstructed ridge structure bears close resemblance to the parent fingerprint