FINGERPRINT RECOGNITION

                           
                                 FINGERPRINT RECOGNITION

The fingerprint recognition problem can be grouped into two sub-domains: one is fingerprint verification and the other is fingerprint identification . In addition, different from the manual approach for fingerprint recognition by experts, the fingerprint recognition here is referred as AFRS (Automatic Fingerprint Recognition System), which is program-based.

Verification   vs. Identification

Fingerprint verification is to verify the authenticity of one person by his fingerprint. The user provides his fingerprint together with his identity information like his ID number. The fingerprint verification system retrieves the fingerprint template according to the ID number and matches the template with the real-time acquired fingerprint from the user. Usually it is the underlying design principle of AFAS (Automatic Fingerprint Authentication System). Fingerprint identification is to specify one person’s identity by his fingerprint(s). Without knowledge of the person’s identity, the fingerprint identification system tries to match his fingerprint(s) with those in the whole fingerprint database. It is especially useful for criminal investigation cases. And it is the design principle of AFIS. However, all fingerprint recognition problems, either verification or identification, are ultimately based on a well-defined representation of a fingerprint. As long as the representation of fingerprints remains the uniqueness and keeps simple, the fingerprint matching, either for the 1-to-1 verification case or 1-to-m identification case, is straightforward and easy.