Time-series detection of perspiration as a liveness test in fingerprint devices

Fingerprint scanners may be susceptible to spoofing using artificial materials, or in the worst case, dismembered fingers. An anti-spoofing method based on liveness detection has been developed for use in fingerprint scanners. This method quantifies a specific temporal perspiration pattern present in fingerprints acquired from live claimants. The enhanced perspiration detection algorithm presented here improves our previous work by including other fingerprint scanner technologies; using a larger, more diverse data set; and a shorter time window. Several classification methods were tested in order to separate live and spoof fingerprint images. The dataset included fingerprint images from 33 live subjects, 33 spoofs created with dental material and Play-Doh, and fourteen cadaver fingers. Each method had a different performance with respect to each scanner and time window. However, all the classifiers achieved approximately 90% classification rate for all scanners, using the reduced time window and the more comprehensive training and test sets.