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 Title: |
US5963656:
System and method for determining the quality of fingerprint images
[ Derwent Title ]
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| Country: |
US United States of America
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| Inventor: |
Bolle, Rudolf Maarten; Bedford Hills, NY
Pankanti, Sharathchandra Umapatirao; Mt. Kisco, NY
Yao, Yi-Sheng; Scarsdale, NY
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| Assignee: |
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY
other patents from INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION (280070) (approx. 44,393)
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| Published / Filed: |
1999-10-05
/ 1996-09-30
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| Application Number: |
US1996000722714
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| IPC Code: |
Advanced:
G06K 9/00;
Core:
more...
IPC-7:
G06K 9/00;
G06K 9/40;
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| ECLA Code: |
G06K9/00Q; G06K9/00A2;
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| U.S. Class: |
Current:
382/124;
382/125;
382/254;
Original:
382/124;
382/125;
382/254;
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| Field of Search: |
382/125,124,126,128,274,272,263,254
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| Priority Number: |
| 1996-09-30 |
US1996000722714 |
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| Abstract: |
A fingerprint image is divided into blocks of pixels. The blocks are marked as directional or non-directional. The blocks are also determined to be within the foreground or background of the image. Contiguous regions of blocks that are in the foreground and are directional are selected. The quality measure is the ratio of the area of all these selected contiguous regions to the total area of the fingerprint image (i.e., the foreground.) The contribution of each of the blocks of the regions to the quality measure can be given by a distance from a block containing a reference point (a block of reference) within the foreground. Further, the block of reference can be located at the centroid of the foreground. Images are judged to be of poor quality if the quality measure is below a quality threshold and are judged to be of good quality if the quality measure is above the quality threshold. Optionally, poor quality images are examined further to determine if they are smudged or come from a dry finger. Good quality images are further processed to determine if they are partial or entire images of the fingerprint.
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| Attorney, Agent or Firm: |
Percello, Louis J.Perman & Green, LLP ;
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| Primary / Asst. Examiners: |
Couso, Jose L.; Dang, Duy M.
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| INPADOC Legal Status: |
Show legal status actions
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| Family: |
None
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First Claim:
Show all 15 claims |
We claim:
1. A system for determining the quality of fingerprint images comprising:
- a computer comprising at least one central processing unit, at least one memory, and at least one input device;
- at least one fingerprint image stored in said at least one memory, said at least one fingerprint image being acquired through said at least one input device and comprising a foreground and a background, said at least one fingerprint image further comprising a plurality of blocks of pixels with at least one block of pixels being directional and at least one block of pixels being non-directional;
- said computer operating under the direction of a region process stored in said at least one memory for selecting regions of blocks, the selected regions of blocks each comprising contiguous blocks that are within the foreground and directional and each said region of blocks having a total number of blocks above a region threshold; and
- said computer further operating under the direction of a quality process stored in said at least one memory for determining a quality measure for the fingerprint image, the determined quality measure comprising a ratio of a combined area of the regions of blocks of pixels to an area of the foreground.
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| Background / Summary: |
Show background / summary
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| Drawing Descriptions: |
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| Description: |
Show description
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| Forward References: |
Show 14 U.S. patent(s) that reference this one
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| Foreign References: |
None
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| Other References: |
B.M. Mehtre, Fingerprint Image Analysis for Automatic Identification, Machine Vision and Applications, 6:124-139, 1993.
Nalini K. Ratha et al. "Adaptive Flow Orientation-Based Feature Extraction In Fingerprint Images", Pattern Recognition, vol.28, No. 11, pp. 1657-1672, 1995.
(16 pages)
Cited by 22 patents
[ISI abstract]
Dana H. Ballard et al. "Computer Vision, Ch. 5 `Region Growing`", 1982, pp. 149-150.
B.M. Mehtre "Fingerprint Image Analysis For Automatic Identification", Machine Vision and Applications (1993) pp. 124-139.
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