Analysis of Contactless Fingerprint Minutia Deviations (Version 1.1)

• NCJ Number: 249559
• Author(s): Lars Ericson; Stephen Shine
• Date Published: April 2015
• Length: 139 pages
• Grant Number(s): 2010-IJ-CX-K024
• Agencies: NIJ-Sponsored
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical); Report (Study/Research); Report (Grant Sponsored)

Annotation

Building on a previous (2014) evaluation of the fingerprint image match performance and interoperability of contactless compared with contact fingerprint data ("Evaluation of Contact versus Contactless Fingerprint Data"), the current report compares the minutia markings of the fingerprints captured by the devices compared

Abstract

This more detailed analysis was made possible by the development of a custom software tool that aids a user in designating equivalent minutia pairs across two fingerprint biometric images and calculating the pair's minutia spatial deviations. This tool is called the Minutia Deviation Tool (MDT), which also allows for matching minutiae to be filtered based on deviation or position criteria to produce Electronic Biometric Transmission Specification (EBTS) files with a subset of minutia markings. The fingerprint data used in the current evaluation consisted of fingerprint images collected in the CFPv1 West Virginia University biometric collection and then processed to produce Latent Friction Ridge Features Search (LFFS) EBTS files that had been reviewed by a certified latent print examiner (CLPE). The minutia pairing process was performed on 130 subjects across three fingerprinting devices - CMR2 (rolled prints) vs. SEEK (rolled prints) and CMR2 vs. TBS (2D grayscale rolled-equivalent prints). Regarding the data analysis tool, the study concludes that the MDT is a useful and unique biometric analysis tool that should be maintained and distributed to the biometrics research community. Regarding the matching of fingerprint images obtained from a contact and contactless device, the study concluded that the unwrapping technique used by TBS was implemented well, and it closely mimics a contact-based rolled print collection tool. The minutia deviations from pressure deformation are not significant. Additional research is needed, however. 35 figures and 7 tables