Touchless Fingerprint Biometrics

Offering the first comprehensive analysis of touchless fingerprint-recognition technologies, Touchless Fingerprint Biometrics gives an overview of the state of the art and describes relevant industrial applications. It also presents new techniques to efficiently and effectively implement advanced solutions based on touchless fingerprinting.

The most accurate current biometric technologies in touch-based fingerprint-recognition systems require a relatively high level of user cooperation to acquire samples of the concerned biometric trait. With the potential for reduced constraints, reduced hardware costs, quicker acquisition time, wider usability, and increased user acceptability, this book argues for the potential superiority of touchless biometrics over touch-based methods.

The book considers current problems in developing high-accuracy touchless recognition technology. It discusses factors such as shadows, reflections, complex backgrounds, distortions due to perspective effects, uncontrolled finger placement, inconstant resolution of the ridge pattern, and reconstruction and processing of three-dimensional models. The last section suggests what future work can be done to increase accuracy in touchless systems, such as intensive studies on extraction and matching methods and three-dimensional analytical capabilities within systems.

In a world where usability and mobility have increasing relevance, Touchless Fingerprint Biometrics demonstrates that touchless technologies are also part of the future. A presentation of the state of the art, it introduces you to the field and its immediate future directions.

Ruggero Donida Labati, PhD, is a postdoctoral research assistant in computer science at the Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy. He was also a visiting researcher at Michigan State University. His main research interests are biometric systems, biometric encryption and privacy-compliant biometric templates, signal and image processing, computational intelligence algorithms, and industrial applications. He is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and is a secretariat of the IEEE Italy Section Computational Intelligence Society Chapter. He has over 30 publications in international journals, proceedings of international conferences, and book chapters.

Vincenzo Piuri, PhD, is professor of computer engineering at the Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy, where he has also been director of the Department of Information Technology. His main research interests are biometrics, pattern analysis and recognition, signal and image processing, theory and industrial applications of neural networks, machine learning, intelligent measurement systems, industrial applications, fault tolerance, digital processing architectures, embedded systems, and arithmetic architectures. He is a Fellow of IEEE, the IEEE Vice President for Technical Activities, and IEEE Director. He is editor-in-chief of the IEEE Systems Journal and has been general chair or program chair for over 50 international conferences and workshops.

Fabio Scotti, PhD, is associate professor of computer science at the Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy. His research interests include biometric systems, biometric encryption and privacy-compliant biometric templates, multimodal biometric systems, signal and image processing, computational intelligence algorithms, industrial applications, and high-level system design. He has over 90 publications in international journals, proceedings of international conferences, and book chapters and has been an editor for several books. He is a senior member of IEEE and has chaired or co-chaired a wide variety of conferences, programs, and workshops.