Identification and authentication using visual cryptography based fingerprint watermarking over natural image

Protection of biometric data is gaining interest and hence digital watermarking techniques are one of the best ways to protect biometric data from accidental or intentional attacks. We have proposed fingerprint watermarking scheme over natural image based on visual cryptography for identification and authentication. The scheme does not embed the fingerprint directly onto the natural image instead using the concept of visual cryptography fingerprint is divided into parts called as shares. The verification share is generated at the time of fingerprint embedding process and while performing identification and authentication master share is generated. Fingerprint is extracted using these two shares. Correlation value between original fingerprint and extracted fingerprint is the deciding factor for identification and authentication. The experimental results show that the scheme is robust against various watermarking attacks.