Prominent symmetry points as landmarks in fingerprint images for alignment

For the alignment of two fingerprints the position of certain landmarks are needed. These should be automatically extracted with a low misidentification rate. As landmarks we suggest the prominent symmetry points (core-points) in the fingerprint. They are extracted from the complex orientation field estimated from the global structure of the fingerprint, i.e. the overall pattern of the ridges and valleys. Complex filters, applied to the orientation field in multiple resolution scales, are used to detect the symmetry and the type of symmetry. Experimental results are reported.