A robust technique for latent fingerprint image segmentation and enhancement

A robust technique for latent fingerprint image segmentation and enhancement is presented. In contrast with most state-of-the-art methods, our approach does not rely on the information of local gradients, which are sensitive to structured and unstructured background noise. Thus, the proposed technique is robust against gradient deviations. It also provides robust estimates to orientations and frequencies of fingerprints in a local region to allow effective Gabor filtering for fingerprint ridge/valley pattern enhancement. Results of latent fingerprint segmentation and enhancement along with orientation estimations on real data are presented to demonstrate the superior performance of the proposed technique.