An approach to improve the ZS thinning algorithm

A critical and indispensable step of an automatic fingerprint identification system (AFIS) is fingerprint image thinning. many algorithms have been devised and applied trying to obtain one pixel wide and 8 neighbor connected thinning result. In this paper, a method of improving the thinning result through adding eliminate structure templates is proposed. The ZS algorithm is a parallel thinning algorithm which has fast converge speed, but it also has some problems such as distortion of the fingerprint ridge, incapability of gaining one-pixel wide skeleton. The proposed improved algorithm will solve the problems without paying extra times, as a result, more effective fingerprint minutiae points could be extracted.