The compact system has high efficiency and accuracy, and provides a competitive edge
over its counterparts.
All in the details
The minutiae features from the fingerprint ridges – such as ridge ending, bifurcation and short ridges – are universally considered to be the most reliable of fingerprint details, ensuring that each fingerprint is unique. They are the focus of all fingerprinting systems commercially available today but are still represented in 2D form. For the first time, Dr Kumar and his team have been able to accurately and reliably recover and match these details in 3D spaces.
To achieve this, the team has shifted away from the standard use of multiple cameras in 3D fingerprint identification to the innovative use of a single, low-cost digital camera coupled with few LED light sources controlled using a computer. This allows researchers to efficiently acquire high frequency information in 3D fingerprints that is processed using advanced in-house algorithms to recover 3D minutiae features. The fundamental significance of this breakthrough was recognised early in the research process with the granting of a US patent and the publication of its key algorithms in the leading journal IEEE Transaction on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence.
From a theoretical standpoint, the system’s recovery and matching of 3D minutiae features pushes back the current limitations on how accurately fingerprints can be identified. In practical terms, which could be more immediately beneficial, the system’s compact size, reduced cost and faster processing, given the reduced amount of equipment needed, places it ahead of currently used commercial 3D counterparts. The touchfree system is also more hygienic than contactbased 2D systems, an added advantage in a world increasingly concerned about the inadvertent spread of disease.
Researchers reconstruct fingerprint minutiae details in 3D space using advanced algorithms.
