An effective algorithm for fingerprint reference point detection

It is very important to detect the reference point effectively and accurately, especially in nonminutiae based fingerprint matching and fingerprint classification. In this paper, an effective algorithm based on block level for fingerprint reference point detection is proposed to simplify detection process and improve accuracy of the position of the point. The method is simple in the preprocessing and easy to implement. We used the Poincare Index on the block level, which is combined with the adaptive smoothing for getting a better orientation map and the directional consistency factor with the purpose of choosing the correct block. The proposed algorithm has been tested on fvc2002 and fvc2004 database. Experimental results show it is effective and practical.