Capturing Images of Fingerprints Using Smartphone Cameras

Markel Umphrey*, Jeremy Dawson
Lane Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV, 26506

Presentation Category: Engineering (Poster Presentation)

Student’s Major: Biometric Systems Engineering

Smartphone camera technology has progressed to the point where fingerprint images can be captured and used for matching. The goal of this research is to investigate whether smartphone cameras can be used in place of a National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) approved scanner to capture images of tenprint cards for fingerprint digitization and matching. The camera performance will be quantified using the modulation transfer function allowing for other cameras performance to be compared against it. Our approach will use an iPhone X rear camera to capture images of a dark set and a light set of tenprint cards. The datasets were generated by participants rolling their fingers in ink once and imprinting on two cards one after the other. Each captured image will be assigned a fingerprint image quality score using the NIST Fingerprint Image Quality (NIFQ) algorithm. The images of sufficient quality will then be matched with high quality digital scans of the same tenprint cards to determine if the captured images can be used for matching purposes.

Funding: National Science Foundation Grant #1650474

Program/mechanism supporting research/creative efforts: a West Virginia SURE program