Extraction of fingerprint orientation maps using a radial basis function recognition accelerator

A ridge direction map, commonly called the orientation map, is essential to most fingerprint identification systems. A novel template matching method for extracting the ridge direction maps from raw fingerprint images is discussed. The method models the intensity profile of fingerprint ridges and generates templates. Subsequently, a radial basis function training procedure reduces the number of prototypical templates. The orientation map directions are then assigned by using a probabilistic measure derived from the contributions of the prototypical templates. A substantial acceleration of the procedure is achieved by using the Ni1000 recognition accelerator