SINGULAR POINT DETECTION BASED ON ORIENTATION FILED REGULARIZATION AND POINCARE' INDEX IN FINGERPRINT IMAGES

Detection of singular points (SPs) in fingerprint images is an important task in fingerprint recognition. In this paper, we propose a novel technique for SPs detection using orientation field regularization and the Poincare' Index (PI) technique. The squared orientation field is first extracted from a fingerprint image. In order to distinguish the local orientation patterns of genuine SPs from that of spurious SPs, a novel technique based on the Discrete Hodge Helmholtz Decomposition (DHHD) is proposed to reconstruct a regular orientation field of the fingerprint. Based on the regular orientation field, the PI technique is then applied to extract the SPs. Experimental results on the public fingerprint database FVC2002 show that, the proposed technique is rather accurate and robust in identifying SPs.