Fingerprint verification using smart cards for access control systems

During the last years, the authors have been trying to integrate biometrics inside a smart card. In order to improve the error rates obtained with hand geometry biometrics, and the cost involved with iris recognition systems, fingerprints will be used. This technique, quite well known in the industry and deeply studied in the last century, have improved its electronic sensors, pulling down the prices, and therefore enabling its use in many more applications. The first step is to obtain an image of the user´s fingerprint. After this, a pre-processing algorithm is applied, which enables a feature extraction step, in order to obtain the location and type of all minutiae, i.e. the discontinuities in the ridges and valleys of the fingerprint. Due to the fact that it is not possible to always catch the same number of minutiae, a special matching algorithm should be applied in order to compare the feature vector with the corresponding user´s template. Efforts to integrate this matching algorithm in a low computer power device, such as a smart card, are described, showing the paths that should be followed in order to improve the security of access control and payment systems available today