Plain four-finger image determination device, plain four-finger image determination method and plain four-finger determination program

• US 20060067566A1
• Filed: 09/28/2005
• Published: 03/30/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 09/29/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: NEC Corporation
• Original Assignee: NEC Corporation
• Inventors: Hara, Masanori
• Application Number:
  US11/236,686
• Publication Number:
  US 20060067566A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/124
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/1347 Preprocessing; Feature extraction

Abstract

The plain four-finger image determination device includes a cut-out unit which cuts out a fingerprint image of each finger from a plain four-finger image, an extraction unit which extracts a core of a fingerprint from each cut-out fingerprint image and a ridge line direction in the vicinity of the core of the fingerprint, an evaluation unit which makes hand determination and determination of a kind of finger based on a relationship of heights of cores of the fingerprints in the respective fingers, an evaluation unit which makes hand determination and determination of a kind of finger based on a combination of tendencies of ridge line directions each determined for each fingerprint of each finger, and a determination unit which makes ultimate hand determination and determination of a kind of finger based on confidence obtained by merging confidences of both the determination results.

Claims

1. A plain four-finger image determination device which makes determination of a kind of a hand and a kind of finger from a plain four-finger image of a hand, comprising:

a unit which extracts a ridge line direction in the vicinity of a core of a fingerprint from a fingerprint image of each finger cut out from said plain four-finger image to determine a tendency of the ridge line direction for each fingerprint of each said finger, and

a unit which verifies a kind of hand and a kind of finger based on a combination of tendencies of said ridge line directions of said four fingers.

2. The plain four-finger image determination device as set forth in claim 1, wherein

when in a fingerprint image of four fingers, three or more fingers have said ridge line directions inclining down right, determination is made that the fingers are of a right hand.

3. The plain four-finger image determination device as set forth in claim 1, wherein

when in said fingerprint image of four fingers, three or more fingers have said ridge line directions inclining down left, determination is made that the fingers are of a left hand.

4. The plain four-finger image determination device as set forth in claim 1, wherein

when in said fingerprint image of four fingers, two or more fingers have said ridge line directions inclining down right and not more than one finger has said ridge line direction inclining down left, determination is made that the fingers are of a right hand.

5. The plain four-finger image determination device as set forth in claim 1, wherein

when in said fingerprint image of four fingers, two or more fingers have said ridge line directions inclining down left and not more than one finger has said ridge line direction inclining down right, determination is made that the fingers are of a left hand.

6. A plain four-finger image determination device which makes determination of a kind of hand and a kind of finger from a plain four-finger image of a hand, comprising:

a unit which extracts a core of a fingerprint from a fingerprint image of each finger cut out from said plain four-finger image, and

a unit which verifies a kind of hand and a kind of finger based on a relationship of heights of cores of fingerprints in said respective fingers.

7. The plain four-finger image determination device as set forth in claim 6, wherein

assuming that in said fingerprint image of four fingers, heights of cores of fingerprints in said respective fingers are represented as Y1, Y2, Y3 and Y4, respectively, from left, when the relationship Y2>

Y3>

Y1>

Y4 holds, determination is made that the fingers are of a right hand.

8. The plain four-finger image determination device as set forth in claim 6, wherein

assuming that in said fingerprint image of four fingers, heights of cores of fingerprints in said respective fingers are represented as Y1, Y2, Y3 and Y4, respectively, from left, when the relationship Y3>

Y2>

Y4>

Y1 holds, determination is made that the fingers are of a left hand.

9. The plain four-finger image determination device as set forth in claim 6, wherein

assuming that in said fingerprint image of four fingers, heights of cores of fingerprints of three fingers are represented as Y1, Y2 and Y3, respectively, from left, when the relationship Y2>

Y3>

Y1 or Y1>

Y2>

Y3 holds, determination is made that the fingers are of a right hand.

10. The plain four-finger image determination device as set forth in claim 6, wherein

assuming that in said fingerprint image of four fingers, heights of cores of fingerprints of three fingers are represented as Y1, Y2 and Y3, respectively, from left, when the relationship Y2>

Y1>

Y3 or Y3>

Y2>

Y1 holds, determination is made that the fingers are of a left hand.

11. A plain four-finger image determination device which makes determination of a kind of hand and a kind of finger from a plain four-finger image of a hand, comprising:

a unit which cuts out a fingerprint image of each finger from said plain four-finger image to extract a core of a fingerprint from each cut-out fingerprint image and a ridge line direction in the vicinity of the core of the fingerprint, and

a unit which verifies a kind of hand and a kind of finger based on a relationship of heights of cores of fingerprints in said respective fingers and a combination of tendencies of said ridge line directions each determined for each of the fingerprints of said respective fingers.

12. The plain four-finger image determination device as set forth in claim 11, wherein

to said hand determination and determination of a kind of finger made based on said relationship of heights of cores of said fingerprints and said combination of tendencies of the ridge line directions as a determination result, confidence of a predetermined value indicative of probability of each determination is set to ultimately decide said determination of a kind of hand and determination of a kind of finger based on confidence obtained by merging said confidences of both the determination results.

13. The plain four-finger image determination device as set forth in claim 12, wherein

when confidence obtained by merging said confidences is larger than a preset threshold value, determination is made that said hand determination and kind of finger indicated by said determination result are ultimate hand determination and kind of finger and when said confidence obtained by merging is smaller than said threshold value, determination is made that hand determination and a kind of finger are unknown.

14. The plain four-finger image determination device as set forth in claim 11, comprising:

a cut-out unit which cuts out a fingerprint image of each finger from said plain four-finger image,

an extraction unit which extracts a core of a fingerprint from a cut-out fingerprint image of each finger and extracts a ridge line direction in the vicinity of the core of the fingerprint from each cut-out fingerprint image,

a core positional relationship evaluation unit which makes said hand determination and determination of a kind of finger based on a relationship of heights of cores of the fingerprints in said respective fingers,

a direction combination evaluation unit which determines a tendency of said ridge line direction for each of the fingerprints of said respective fingers to make said hand determination and determination of a kind of finger based on a combination of tendencies of said ridge line directions of said four fingers, and

a hand determination and kind of finger determination unit which integrates predetermined confidences each indicative of probability of determination with said hand determination and determination of a kind of finger made based on said relationship of heights of cores of the fingerprints and said combination of tendencies of the ridge line directions as a determination result to make ultimate decision of said hand determination and determination of a kind of finger.

15. A plain four-finger image determination method of determining a kind of hand and a kind of finger from a plain four-finger image of a hand, comprising the steps of:

cutting out a fingerprint image of each finger from said plain four-finger image,

extracting a ridge line direction in the vicinity of a core of a fingerprint from each cut-out fingerprint image,

determining a tendency of the ridge line direction for each fingerprint of said respective fingers, and

determining a kind of a hand and a kind of finger based on a combination of tendencies of said ridge line directions of said four fingers.

16. The plain four-finger image determination method as set forth in claim 15, wherein

when in a fingerprint image of four fingers, three or more fingers have said ridge line directions inclining down right, determination is made that the fingers are of a right hand.

17. The plain four-finger image determination method as set forth in claim 15, wherein

when in said fingerprint image of four fingers, three or more fingers have said ridge line directions inclining down left, determination is made that the fingers are of a left hand.

18. The plain four-finger image determination method as set forth in claim 15, wherein

when in said fingerprint image of four fingers, two or more fingers have said ridge line directions inclining down right and not more than one finger has said ridge line direction inclining down left, determination is made that the fingers are of a right hand.

19. The plain four-finger image determination method as set forth in claim 15, wherein

when in said fingerprint image of four fingers, two or more fingers have said ridge line directions inclining down left and not more than one finger has said ridge line direction inclining down right, determination is made that the fingers are of a left hand.

20. A plain four-finger image determination method of determining a kind of hand and a kind of finger from a plain four-finger image of a hand, comprising the steps of:

cutting out a fingerprint image of each finger from said plain four-finger image,

extracting a core of a fingerprint from each cut-out fingerprint image, and

determining a kind of hand and a kind of finger based on a relationship of heights of cores of fingerprints of said respective fingers.

21. The plain four-finger image determination method as set forth in claim 20, wherein

assuming that in said fingerprint image of four fingers, heights of cores of fingerprints in said respective fingers are represented as Y1, Y2, Y3 and Y4, respectively, from left, when the relationship Y2>

Y3>

Y1>

Y4 holds, determination is made that the fingers are of a right hand.

22. The plain four-finger image determination method as set forth in claim 20, wherein

assuming that in said fingerprint image of four fingers, heights of cores of fingerprints in said respective fingers are represented as Y1, Y2, Y3 and Y4, respectively, from left, when the relationship Y3>

Y2>

Y4>

Y1 holds, determination is made that the fingers are of a left hand.

23. A plain four-finger image determination method of determining a kind of hand and a kind of finger from a plain four-finger image of a hand, comprising the steps of:

cutting out a fingerprint image of each finger from said plain four-finger image,

extracting a core of a fingerprint from each cut-out fingerprint image and a ridge line direction in the vicinity of the core of the fingerprint, and

determining a kind of hand and a kind of finger based on a relationship of heights of cores of fingerprints in said respective fingers and a combination of said ridge line direction tendencies each determined for each fingerprint of said each finger.

24. The plain four-finger image determination method as set forth in claim 23, wherein

to said hand determination and determination of a kind of finger made based on said relationship of heights of cores of said fingerprints and said combination of tendencies of the ridge line directions as a determination result, confidence of a predetermined value indicative of probability of each determination is set to ultimately decide said hand determination and determination of a kind of finger based on confidence obtained by merging said confidences of both the determination results.

25. The plain four-finger image determination method as set forth in claim 24, wherein

when confidence obtained by merging said confidences is larger than a preset threshold value, determination is made that said hand determination and kind of finger indicated by said determination result are ultimate hand determination and kind of finger and when said confidence obtained by merging is smaller than said threshold value, determination is made that hand determination and determination of a kind of finger are unknown.

26. A plain four-finger image determination program for controlling a computer to execute processing of determining a kind of hand and a kind of finger from a plain four-finger image of a hand, which execute the functions of:

cutting out a fingerprint image of each finger from said plain four-finger image,

extracting a ridge line direction in the vicinity of a core of a fingerprint from each cut-out fingerprint image,

determining a tendency of the ridge line direction for each fingerprint of said respective fingers, and

determining a kind of hand and a kind of finger based on a combination of tendencies of said ridge line directions of said four fingers.

27. The plain four-finger image determination program as set forth in claim 26, which has the function of,

when in a fingerprint image of four fingers, three or more fingers have said ridge line directions inclining down right, determining that the fingers are of a right hand.

28. The plain four-finger image determination program as set forth in claim 26, which has the function of,

when in said fingerprint image of four fingers, three or more fingers have said ridge line directions inclining down left, determining that the fingers are of a left hand.

29. The plain four-finger image determination program as set forth in claim 26, which has the function of,

when in said fingerprint image of four fingers, two or more fingers have said ridge line directions inclining down right and not more than one finger has said ridge line direction inclining down left, determining that the fingers are of a right hand.

30. The plain four-finger image determination program as set forth in claim 26, which has the function of,

when in said fingerprint image of four fingers, two or more fingers have said ridge line directions inclining down left and not more than one finger has said ridge line direction inclining down right, determining that the fingers are of a left hand.

31. A plain four-finger image determination program for controlling a computer to execute processing of determining a kind of hand and a kind of finger from a plain four-finger image of a hand, which executes the function of:

cutting out a fingerprint image of each finger from said plain four-finger image,

extracting a core of a fingerprint from each cut-out fingerprint image, and

making said hand determination and determination of a kind of finger based on a relationship of heights of cores of fingerprints of said respective fingers.

32. The plain four-finger image determination program as set forth in claim 31, which has the function of,

assuming that in said fingerprint image of four fingers, heights of cores of fingerprints in said respective fingers are represented as Y1, Y2, Y3 and Y4, respectively, from left, when the relationship Y2>

Y3>

Y1>

Y4 holds, determining that the fingers are of a right hand.

33. The plain four-finger image determination program as set forth in claim 31, which has the function of,

assuming that in said fingerprint image of four fingers, heights of cores of fingerprints in said respective fingers are represented as Y1, Y2, Y3 and Y4, respectively, from left, when the relationship Y3>

Y2>

Y4>

Y1 holds, determining that the fingers are of a left hand.

34. A plain four-finger image determination program for controlling a computer to execute processing of determining a kind of hand and a kind of finger from a plain four-finger image of a hand, which executes the functions of:

cutting out a fingerprint image of each finger from said plain four-finger image,

extracting a core of a fingerprint from each cut-out fingerprint image and a ridge line direction in the vicinity of the core of the fingerprint, and

determining a kind of hand and a kind of finger based on a relationship of heights of cores of fingerprints in said respective fingers and a combination of said ridge line direction tendencies each determined for each fingerprint of said each finger.

35. The plain four-finger image determination program as set forth in claim 34, which has the function of,

setting, to said hand determination and determination of a kind of finger made based on said relationship of heights of cores of the fingerprints and said combination of the ridge line direction tendencies as a determination result, confidence of a predetermined value indicative of probability of each determination to ultimately decide said hand determination and determination of a kind of finger based on confidence obtained by merging said confidences of both the determination results.

36. The plain four-finger image determination program as set forth in claim 35, which has the function of,

when confidence obtained by merging said confidences is larger than a preset threshold value, deciding said hand determination and kind of finger indicated by said determination result as ultimate hand determination and kind of finger and when said confidence obtained by merging is smaller than said threshold value, determining that hand determination and determination of a kind of finger are unknown.