Altered fingerprints : analysis and detection

The widespread deployment of Automated Fingerprint Identification Systems (AFIS) in law enforcement and border control applications has heightened the need for ensuring that these systems are not compromised. While several issues related to fingerprint system security have been investigated, includi...

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Bibliographische Detailangaben
Veröffentlicht in:IEEE transactions on pattern analysis and machine intelligence. - 1979. - 34(2012), 3 vom: 23. März, Seite 451-64
1. Verfasser: Yoon, Soweon (VerfasserIn)
Weitere Verfasser: Feng, Jianjiang, Jain, Anil K
Format: Online-Aufsatz
Sprache:English
Veröffentlicht: 2012
Zugriff auf das übergeordnete Werk:IEEE transactions on pattern analysis and machine intelligence
Schlagworte:Journal Article Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.
Beschreibung
Zusammenfassung:The widespread deployment of Automated Fingerprint Identification Systems (AFIS) in law enforcement and border control applications has heightened the need for ensuring that these systems are not compromised. While several issues related to fingerprint system security have been investigated, including the use of fake fingerprints for masquerading identity, the problem of fingerprint alteration or obfuscation has received very little attention. Fingerprint obfuscation refers to the deliberate alteration of the fingerprint pattern by an individual for the purpose of masking his identity. Several cases of fingerprint obfuscation have been reported in the press. Fingerprint image quality assessment software (e.g., NFIQ) cannot always detect altered fingerprints since the implicit image quality due to alteration may not change significantly. The main contributions of this paper are: 1) compiling case studies of incidents where individuals were found to have altered their fingerprints for circumventing AFIS, 2) investigating the impact of fingerprint alteration on the accuracy of a commercial fingerprint matcher, 3) classifying the alterations into three major categories and suggesting possible countermeasures, 4) developing a technique to automatically detect altered fingerprints based on analyzing orientation field and minutiae distribution, and 5) evaluating the proposed technique and the NFIQ algorithm on a large database of altered fingerprints provided by a law enforcement agency. Experimental results show the feasibility of the proposed approach in detecting altered fingerprints and highlight the need to further pursue this problem
Beschreibung:Date Completed 03.07.2012
Date Revised 02.04.2012
published: Print
Citation Status MEDLINE
ISSN:1939-3539
DOI:10.1109/TPAMI.2011.161