Accurate 3D fingerprint virtual environment for biometric technology evaluations and experiment design

Three-dimensional models of fingerprints obtained from contactless acquisitions have the advantages of reducing the distortion present in traditional contact-based samples and the effects of dirt on the finger and the sensor surface. Moreover, they permit to use a greater area for the biometric recognition. The design and test of three-dimensional reconstruction algorithms and contactless recognition methods require the collection of large databases. Since this task can be expensive and timeconsuming, some methods in the literature deal with the generation of synthetic biometric samples. At the best of our knowledge, however, there is only a preliminary study on the computation of small areas of synthetic three-dimensional fingerprints. In this paper, we extend our previous work and describe a virtual environment for the generation of complete threedimensional fingertip shapes, which can be useful for the research community working in the field of three-dimensional fingerprint biometrics. The method is based on image processing techniques and algorithms designed for biometric recognition. We validated the realism of the simulated models by comparing them with real contactless acquisitions. Results show that the method is feasible and produces realistic three-dimensional samples which can effectively be processed by biometric recognition algorithms.