Fingerphoto Recognition with Smartphone Cameras

Abstract: This paper is concerned with the authentication of people on smartphones using fingerphoto recognition. In this work, fingerphotos are captured with the built-in camera of the smartphone. The proposed authentication method is analyzed for feasibility and implemented in a prototype as application for the Android operating system. Algorithms for the capture process are developed to ensure a minimum of quality of the captured photos to enable a reliable fingerphoto recognition. Several methods for preprocessing of the captured samples are analyzed and performant solutions to evaluate the photos are developed to enhance the recognition rates. This is achieved by evaluating a wide range of different parameters and configurations of the algorithms as well as various combinations of preprocessing chains for the captured samples. The operations for preprocessing are selected with respect to their computational effort to guarantee that they can be executed on a smartphone with limited computation and memory capacity. The developed prototype is evaluated in user tests with two different smartphones. Additionally, a biometric database containing photos of the two test devices from 41 test subjects is created. These fingerphotos are used to evaluate and optimize the procedures.