Apparatus and methods for capturing a fingerprint
First Claim
1. A method of capturing a fingerprint, comprising:
- obtaining a first fingerprint image in a guard region preset within a captured image, the guard region including less than all of the captured image; and
extracting a fingerprint region based on a predicted color distribution, the predicted color information based on color information associated with the first fingerprint image, the extracted fingerprint region including the first fingerprint image within the guard region and at least a portion of the fingerprint region extending beyond the guard region within the captured image, whereinthe extracting of the fingerprint region includes expanding the fingerprint region based on the predicted color distribution, and wherein extracting of the fingerprint region includes;
extracting color information for each pixel of the first fingerprint image;
transforming the color information into normalized color coordinates;
calculating a mean vector and a covariance matrix of the first fingerprint image based on the normalized color coordinates;
setting as target pixels, pixels which are not yet determined to be associated with one of a fingerprint region or a background region, within the captured image outside of the guard region;
extracting target color information of the target pixels and transforming the target color information into target normalized color coordinates;
calculating a distance indicating a similarity between the first fingerprint image and the target pixels based the target normalized color coordinates of the target pixels, the mean vector and the covariance matrix;
comparing the calculated distance with a distance threshold; and
expanding a temporary fingerprint region according based on a result of the comparison.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An apparatus and methods for capturing a fingerprint are provided. In a first example method, first fingerprint image may be obtained in a guard region within a captured image, the guard region including less than all of the captured image. A fingerprint region may be extracted from the captured image based on a predicted color distribution, the predicted color distribution based on color information associated with the first fingerprint image, the extracted fingerprint region including the first fingerprint image within the guard region and at least a portion of the fingerprint region extending beyond the guard region within the captured image. In a second example method, guard region may be defined within a picture boundary area, the defined guard region including less than all of the picture boundary area. At least one image may be captured, the captured image spanning the picture boundary area. Information associated with the captured image may be extracted from within the guard region. Portions of the captured image associated with a user'"'"'s fingerprint may then be extracted based on the extracted information, the identified portions including a first portion within the guard region of the captured image and a second portion within the picture boundary area of the captured image outside of the guard region. In another example, an apparatus may be configured to perform either of the above-described first and second example methods.
-
Citations
29 Claims
-
1. A method of capturing a fingerprint, comprising:
-
obtaining a first fingerprint image in a guard region preset within a captured image, the guard region including less than all of the captured image; and extracting a fingerprint region based on a predicted color distribution, the predicted color information based on color information associated with the first fingerprint image, the extracted fingerprint region including the first fingerprint image within the guard region and at least a portion of the fingerprint region extending beyond the guard region within the captured image, wherein the extracting of the fingerprint region includes expanding the fingerprint region based on the predicted color distribution, and wherein extracting of the fingerprint region includes; extracting color information for each pixel of the first fingerprint image; transforming the color information into normalized color coordinates; calculating a mean vector and a covariance matrix of the first fingerprint image based on the normalized color coordinates; setting as target pixels, pixels which are not yet determined to be associated with one of a fingerprint region or a background region, within the captured image outside of the guard region; extracting target color information of the target pixels and transforming the target color information into target normalized color coordinates; calculating a distance indicating a similarity between the first fingerprint image and the target pixels based the target normalized color coordinates of the target pixels, the mean vector and the covariance matrix; comparing the calculated distance with a distance threshold; and expanding a temporary fingerprint region according based on a result of the comparison. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
-
-
18. An apparatus for capturing a fingerprint, comprising:
-
a fingerprint image acquisition unit obtaining a first fingerprint image in a guard region preset within a captured image, the guard region including less than all of the captured image; and a fingerprint region extraction unit extracting a fingerprint region based on a predicted color distribution, the predicted color information based on color information associated with the first fingerprint image, the extracted fingerprint region including the first fingerprint image within the guard region and at least a portion of the fingerprint region extending beyond the guard region within the captured image, wherein the extraction of the fingerprint region by the fingerprint region extraction unit includes expanding the fingerprint region based on the predicted color distribution, and wherein the fingerprint region extraction unit includes a color information calculation unit extracting color information for each pixel of the first fingerprint image, transforming the color information into normalized color coordinates and calculating a mean vector and a covariance matrix of the first fingerprint image based on the normalized color coordinates; a target pixel storage unit setting as target pixels, pixels which are not yet determined to be associated with one of a fingerprint region or a background region, within the captured image outside of the guard region and extracting target color information of the target pixels and transforming the target color information into target normalized color coordinates; a distance calculation unit calculating a distance indicating a similarity between the first fingerprint image and the target pixels based the target normalized color coordinates of the target pixels, the mean vector and the covariance matrix; a fingerprint region expansion unit comparing the calculated distance with a distance threshold and expanding a temporary fingerprint region according based on a result of the comparison. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29)
-
-
24. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the mean vector and covariance matrix are obtained based on at least two elements associated with the normalized color coordinates.
-
25. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the mean vector (m) and covariance matrix (Σ
- ) are calculated based on the following equation;
- ) are calculated based on the following equation;
-
26. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the temporary fingerprint region becomes the extracted fingerprint region when no additional expansions are possible.
-
27. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the fingerprint region expansion unit determines that the target pixel corresponds to a fingerprint region if the distance is less than the distance threshold and determines the target pixel corresponds to a background region if the distance is greater than the distance threshold.
-
28. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the distance (D(i)) is a Mahalanobis distance expressed as follows:
-
D(i)=(x(i)−
m)TΣ
−
1(x(i)−
m)wherein x(i) denotes the normalized color coordinates of the target pixel, m is the calculated mean vector, and Σ
−
1 is the calculated covariance.
-
-
29. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the ridge direction extraction unit includes:
-
an initial direction measuring unit dividing the fingerprint region into a plurality of blocks, obtaining the gradient for each of the plurality of blocks and measuring an initial direction of each of the plurality of blocks based on the gradient; an outlier removal unit obtaining a Euclidian norm of the gradient, for each of the plurality of blocks, by whitening the gradient and in response to the Euclidian norm, removing gradients corresponding to outliers, and storing an energy sum of the removed gradients and an energy sum of non-removed gradients; a direction remeasuring a direction of each of the plurality of blocks after the removing of the outlier gradients; an energy calculation unit calculating a ratio of an energy sum of non-removed gradients to an energy sum of the removed gradients if a difference between the remeasured direction and a previously measured direction is greater than a threshold; a ridge direction determination unit interpreting the remeasured direction as the ridge direction if the ratio is not less than the energy threshold.
-
Specification