An Adaptive Approach to Singular Point Detection in Fingerprint Images

Abstract

This paper presents a novel algorithm for detection of singular points, the core and delta points, in fingerprint images. The number and location of singular points, are used to classify fingerprint images into five general groups; and therefore to narrow down the search space in large fingerprint databases. Using the proposed directional masks in the first step, we detect the neighborhood of the singular points. In the second stage by implementing the proposed algorithm, an adaptive singular point detection method, is designed to extract the exact location of core and delta points. Usage of the proposed directional masks speeds up the process and the proposed adaptive singular point detection method increases the accuracy of the algorithm.