Method of smoothing a ridge direction pattern and equipment used therefor

Abstract: An energy function is defined as a linear sum of a discrepancy evaluation function and a dispersion evaluation function. Direction variables of all the subregions of a ridge direction pattern are variables of both evaluation functions. Direction variables are successively renovated along a line on which the energy function becomes minimum for a change of a concerned variable keeping all other variables unchanged. Reliabilities of initial directions in all the subregions are included as coefficients in the discrepancy evaluation function, and a higher reliability of an initial direction constrains the directional difference between the initial direction and the corresponding direction variable in a smaller amount. A set of variables which makes the energy function minimum is taken as a set of smoothed ridge direction pattern.

Description: This invention relates to a method of recognizing fingerprints, and more particularly to a method of smoothing a ridge direction pattern when the flow of the ridge lines is used for precise interpretation of fingerprints. A method of smoothing a ridge direction pattern has been disclosed, for example, on "Fingerprint Pattern Classification" by Masahiro Kawagoe et al in Pattern Recognition Vol.17, No.3, pp.295-303,1984, on "A Restoration Algorithm of Fingerprint Images" by Osamu Nakamura et al in Treatise of Japanese Electronics and Communication Vol. J68, No. 5, pp1133-1140, 1985, and on "Automated Fingerprint Identification by Minutia-Network Feature" by Ko Asai et al in Treatise of Japanese Electronics, Information and Communication Vol. Vol.J72-D-II, pp724-732, 1989. In these heretofore known systems, a fingerprint is input, for example, as a 512×512 binary image(dot matrix) and converted into an array of direction patterns composed of 32×32 subregions, each corresponding to a 16×16 pixel area. The direction in each subregion is quantized in eight different levels, that is, 0, π/8, 2π/8, 3π/8, 4π/8, 5π/8, 6π/8, 7π/8 and is labeled by d from d=1 to d=8, d=1 corresponding to 0 level and d=7 corresponding to 7π/8 level. Besides to these eight levels, d=0 is labeled to a subregion where no ridge line is contained or where the direction pattern is not defined. In the conversion into these nine labels, a quantized direction having the highest probability in a subregion is labeled to the subregion, and its probability is called an initial probability of the initial direction. Then, the probabilities of the directions of all the subregions are repeatedly innovated by probabilistic relaxation process in which a renovated probability is expressed by P j k+1 (d)= P j k (d){1+q j k (d)} ΣP j k (d){1+q j k (d)} where P j k (d) is the probability of direction d at position j in the kth iteration, j, (j') is the subregions position, a is the extent of the subregions having influence on a subregion concerned, W jj' is a weight of influence from a subregion at point j' to a subregion at point j, γ jj' (d,d') is the compatibility coefficient, for example =1 when d is parallel to d', and =-1 when d is perpendicular to d'. At each iteration of the probabilistic relaxation process, the direction having the highest probability in a subregion may change and the label of the subregion is changed. After a certain number of iterations of the process, the label determined by the final iteration is taken as a smoothed label of the subregion. Although the initial probability of a label for each subregion is determined at the initial conversion of the fingerprint, the label of a subregion can be changed at each iteration of the relaxation process without a constraint from the initial probability. Thus, there is no guarantee of convergence of a direction of a subregion, and an iteration of the step does not necessarily improve the smoothness of the ridge line pattern. Therefore, the operator must decide the termination of iteration by trial and error, observing the results on the way, and it is difficult to obtain a reliable ridge line pattern by this relaxation process. And in this relaxation process, a label of low probability(low confidence of estimation) is treated equally as a label of high probability(high confidence of estimation). As a result, a label having a high initial probability can be changed to a wrong direction by an influence from a label having a low probability. Steven W. Zucker et al. proposed a new paradigm for curve detection entitled "The Organization of Curve Detection" on a paper presented to the "Second International Conference on Computer Vision" held on December 5-8, 1988. In the paper, a local ridge line of a fingerprint, for example, is represented (labelled) by a discrete tangent field, i.e., an estimated representation of quantized tangents and curvatures at each possible trace point. For smoothing the direction labels, the probabilistic relaxation process is used, and the final labelling is selected such that it minimized a function of a compatibility. In the Zucker's paradigm, however, the direct effect of the initial probability on the smoothing of the ridge line pattern is extinguished after the first iteration of the probabilistic relaxation process. Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a process of smoothing in which an iteration of the process always improves the result of smoothing, Another object of this invention is to provide a process of smoothing in which the operator is informed of the proper termination of the iteration. And still another object of this invention is to provide a process of smoothing in which a label having a higher initial probability is less changed than that having a lower initial probability. In order to achieve these objects, a discrepancy evaluation function E 1 and a dispersion evaluation function E 2 are introduced in this invention. A direction variable which is represented by (m,n)(where m, n indicate the position of the subregion) is assigned to each subregion, and all the direction variables of all the subregions compose the variables of these functions. A contribution from a subregion to the discrepancy evaluation function is defined as a sum of the product of the direction difference of the direction variable from the initial direction of the subregion and the reliability of the initial direction. Thus E 1 is represented by where ϑ(m,n) is the initial direction of a subregion at mth row and nth column, R(m,n) is the probability of the initial direction, (m,n) is the direction variable of the subregion, and δ represents the direction difference defined in a later paragraph. means a summation for all subregions. The initial value of the direction variable (m, n) may be arbitrary. But for the sake of quick convergence of the direction variables, usually the initial direction ϑ(m, n) is assigned as the initial value of the direction variable (m, n). In the following descriptions of this specification, it is assumed that the initial value of a direction variable (m, n) is the initial direction ϑ(m, n). A contribution from a subregion to the dispersion evaluation function E 2 is defined as a sum of the products of the direction difference from neighboring subregions and the weight of influence of the neighboring subregions. When the weight of the four neighboring subregions is 1(unity) and the weight of all the other subregions is 0(zero), E 2 is represented by And an energy function E is defined by E=E 1 +λE 2 •••(4), where λ is a coefficient to be determined by design. At one extremity, when λ is sufficiently smaller than unity, E becomes near minimum, when E 1 is minimum(=0) with the direction variable in each subregion being equal to the initial direction. And at another extremity, when λ is sufficiently larger than unity, E becomes near minimum when E 2 is minimum(=0) with all the direction variables of all the subregions being the same value. Between these two extremities, there is a range of the values of λ which gives an adequate ridge direction pattern smoothing. This range can be detected experimentally by trial and error method. In experiments tried by the inventor on a fingerprint image wherein a pixel is expressed by 8 bits of binary digits (256 graduations), λ=3. 3 gave a good result. Thus, according to a first feature of this invention, the smoothed direction pattern of ridge lines is represented by a set of direction variables which makes the energy function E to a minimum value and comprises a step of extracting the initial pattern, a step of repeating renovation of direction variables and a step of calculating the value of the energy function for the renovated direction variables and judging the necessity of further iteration. According to a second feature of this invention, the direction difference of two directions δ( 2 , 1 ) is defined as a square of magnitude of a vector representing a difference vector between two unit vectors having directions  2 and  1 respectively. According to a third feature of this invention, a new direction variable of a subregion is so determined as to satisfy equations ∂E/∂(m,n)=0, and ∂ 2 E/(m,n) 2 >0 •••(5), and then another new direction variable of another subregion is determined in a similar way. Further objects, features, and advantages of this invention will become apparent from a consideration of the following description, the appended claims, and the accompanying drawings in which the same numerals indicate the same or the corresponding parts. Fig.1 shows a block diagram of an embodiment of this invention; Fig.2 shows a flow diagram of an embodiment of this invention; Fig.3 shows an example of an initial ridge direction pattern of an embodiment of this invention; Fig. 4 shows a ridge direction pattern smoothed from Fig.3; Figs. 5 shows an effect of this invention; Fig.6 illustrates a definition of a direction difference; and Fig.7 shows a process of revising direction variables. Referring to Fig.1, an image memory 11 stores a fingerprint picture. This picture is input to the image memory 11 by a conventional image input device, such as an image scanner. Ridge direction pattern extraction means 12 selects a portion of the content of the image memory 11, for example, 512×512 image data and converts the selected image data into an array of direction patterns of, for example, 32×32 subregions. In this conversion, the probability of each direction of a subregion is also determined. The direction patterns are stored in an initial pattern memory 13, and the probability corresponding to a direction pattern of a subregion is stored in a probability pattern memory 14. A variable direction memory 15 stores an array of direction variables. Initial values of these direction variables may be the initial directions in the initial pattern memory 13. Fig.3 shows an example of an initial ridge direction pattern stored in the initial pattern memory 13. In ordinary circumstances, because of the difficulty to obtain an accurate and reliable fingerprint image in the image memory 11, the initial ridge direction pattern as shown in Fig.3 is not sufficiently trustworthy and must be smoothed. In this invention, the smoothing of the ridge direction pattern is processed along a line on which the energy function E is decreased. Direction variable revision means 16 changes direction variables in the variable direction memory 15, and judgement means 17 calculates the energy function E for the revised variables, and when the decrement ΔE of the energy function is below a predetermined level, the revision of direction variables is terminated and the contents of the variable direction memory 15 are taken out as a smoothed ridge direction pattern. Fig.4 shows an example of a smoothed ridge direction pattern obtained from the original pattern shown by Fig. 3. Figs. 5 show an effect of R(m,n) to a smoothing process of this invention. Three subregions (m-1, n), (m, n), (m+1, n) are shown. In Fig. 5(a) and Fig. 5(b), it is assumed that an increase in E 1 is outweighed by a decrease in E 2 , and the smoothed pattern as shown decreases the energy function E. In Fig.5(b), it is assumed that R(m-1, n)>R(m, n)and R(m+1, n)>R(m, n) and small changes in directions of the subregions (m-1,n) and (m+1,n) with a large change in direction of the subregion (m,n) made the increase in E 1 to a minimum. When this difference in probability is not considered, the increase in E 1 will be minimum when the direction change is equal in these three subregions as shown by Fig. 5(a), in which initial directions of the subregions (m-1,n) and (m+1, n) having higher confidence of estimation are changed by an influence of a direction error of the subregion (m, n). In an embodiment of this invention, the direction difference δ( 2 ,  1 ) between two directions  2 and  1 is defined as a square of magnitude of a vector representing a difference vector between two unit vectors having directions  1 ,  2 respectively. Fig.6 illustrates this definition wherein a unit vector having direction  1 is denoted by a numeral 61, and another unit vector having direction  2 is denoted by a numeral 62. A numeral 63 represents a difference vector of the two unit vectors 61 and 62. A square of the magnitude of 63 is defined as the direction difference δ( 2 ,  1 ). Thus, the direction difference δ{(m,n), ϑ(m,n)} in equation(2) is represented by |exp(i)-exp(iϑ)| 2 •••(6), where exp(i) represents a unit vector having direction . It must be noted that directions in equation (6) are to be measured in 0∼2π. When these directions are measured in a limited range of 0∼π, the values of the direction angles must be doubled. In the direction variable revision means 16, calculation by equations (5) is executed. Fig.7 illustrates an example of revising direction variables for two variables  1 and  2 . Constant energy lines are plotted on a plane of the two variables  1 and  2 . Starting from an initial condition represented by p 0 ,  1 is changed in accordance with equations(5) to point p 1 keeping  2 unchanged. From point p 1 ,  2 is changed in accordance with equations(5) to point p 2 keeping  1 unchanged. Repeating these steps, we can reach to a point p having a minimum energy value. Actually, there are as many direction variables as the number of subregions, and the revision of direction variables must be executed in a multi-dimensional space along an axis corresponding to each direction variable. When the equations(5) are solved for equations(2), (3), (4) and (6), we obtain (m,n)=arctan(A y /A x ) where (m,n) satisfies cos(m, n)=A y /A and A x ≡ R(m, n)cosϑ(m, n) +λ {cos(m+1, n)+cos(m, n+1) +cos(m-1, n)+cos(m, n-1)} A y ≡ R(m, n)sinϑ(m, n) +λ {sin(m+1, n)+sin(m, n+1) +sin(m-1, n)+sin(m, n-1)} A ≡ (A x 2 + A y 2 ) 1/2 Now referring to Fig.2, the present invention comprises a step 20 of ridge direction pattern extraction, an iterative step 28 for revising direction variables, and a judgement step 29. The iterative step 28 for revising direction variables comprises a calculation step 22 of a new value of a direction variable (Nth direction variable) along a line of decreasing the energy function E, with all other direction variables being kept unchanged, a revision step 23 of the direction variable, and an iteration step of repeating these steps 22 and 23 for all the direction variables, which are numbered by N (N= 0, 1, 2, ···· n-1). The judgement step 29 comprises a calculation step 25 for calculating decrement ΔE of the energy function E in a cycle of revising all the direction variables, and a comparison step 26 for comparing ΔE to a predetermined threshold Th. When ΔE<Th, the iteration of steps 22, 23 and 24 is terminated, and the direction variables are output as a smoothed direction pattern. When ΔE≥Th, a ridge line pattern renovation step 28 including steps 22, 23 and 24 is repeated.

Claims: Method of smoothing a ridge direction pattern comprising: a step of dividing a ridge line image picture into an array of plural subregions, a ridge direction pattern extraction step (20) of determining for all the subregions, an initial direction ϑ(m, n) of ridge line image, an initial probability R (m, n) of said initial direction, and an initial value of a direction variable Θ(m, n) of a subregion whose position is at mth row and nth column in said array of subregions, an iterative step (28) for revising said direction variables of all the subregions to smooth a ridge direction pattern formed by said ridge directions of all the subregions, comprising: a first calculation step (22) of a new value of a direction variable along a line of decreasing an energy function E, as defined in the below energy calculation step, with all other direction variables being kept unchanged; a revision step (23) for revising said direction variable with said new value; said method of smoothing a ridge direction pattern further comprising: a step of calculating said predetermined energy function E after the direction-variable of each region has been revised, comprising: a second step of calculating, for each subregion, a product of the initial probability R(m, n) of said subregion multiplied by direction difference δ{Θ(m, n), ϑ(m, n)} between the direction variable and the initial direction of said subregion, a first step of integrating said product R(m, n)δ{Θ(m, n), ϑ(m, n)} of all the subregions for determining a discrepancy evaluation function E 1 , a third step of calculating, for each concerned subregion, a product of weight of influence from a neighbouring subregion multiplied by the direction difference δ{Θ(m, n),Θ(m+1, n)} between the direction variables of said concerned and said neighbouring subregion, a second step of integrating, for each said concerned subregion, said product of weight and the directional difference on all neighbouring subregions for determining a component of a dispersion evaluation function of said concerned subregion, a third step of integrating said component of dispersion evaluation function on all the subregions for determining a dispersion evaluation function E 2 , a fourth step (25) of calculating said energy function E which is represented as a linear function E=E 1 + λE 2 , of said discrepancy evaluation function E 1 and said dispersion evaluation function E 2 , λ being a coefficient; said method of smoothing a ridge direction pattern further comprising: a judgement step (29) for deciding termination of said iterative step based on the calculated energy function value. Method according to claim 1, wherein said direction difference δ( 2 ,  1 ) between two directions  2 and  1 is defined as a square of magnitude of a vector representing a difference vector between two unit vectors having direction  1 and  2 , respectively. Method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein said step of revising said direction variables (28) comprises: calculation step for determining a new direction variable  1 by equations ∂E/∂ 1 =0, and ∂ 2 E/∂ 1 2 >0 where  1 is the direction variable of an arbitrary subregion, revision step for substituting said direction variable of said arbitrary subregion by said new directicn variable and steps of repeating said calculation steps and said revision steps for all other subregions. Method according to any of claims 1 to 3, wherein said judgement step (29) for deciding termination of said iterative calculation comprises a step wherein a decrement ΔE of said energy function E in an iteration of said iterative step is compared to a predetermined threshold value Th, and the iteration of said iterative step is terminated when ΔE<Th. An equipment used for smoothing a ridge direction pattern comprising: an image memory (11) for storing a fingerprint ridge line picture, ridge direction pattern extraction means (12) for converting the contents of said image memory to directional patterns of all subregions and probabilities of the directional patterns, ridge direction pattern revision means for revising ridge directions of all the subregions by an iterative calculation to smooth the ridge direction pattern composed of said ridge directions of all the subregions, comprising an initial pattern memory (13) for storing an initial direction ϑ(m, n) of a subregion for all the subregions, where (m, n) indicates a subregion at mth row and nth column, a probability pattern memory (14) for storing an initial probability R(m, n) of the initial direction ϑ(m, n) for all the subregions, a direction variable memory (15) for storing a direction variable (m, n) for all the subregions, and direction variable revision means (16) for revising said direction variables; and means for storing the revised direction variable in said variable direction memory (15) for next repeated steps; said means further comprising means for calculating an energy function comprising means for calculating a discrepancy evaluation function E 1 by an equation E1 = ΣΣR(m, n) δ{(Θ(m, n), ϑ(m, n)} where δ represents the direction difference of the two directions, and ΣΣ represents an integration on all the subregions, means for calculating a contribution of a subregion to a dispersion evaluation function by a sum of the products of the direction difference from neighbouring subregions and the weight of influence of the neighbouring subregions, and for integrating the contribution on all the subregions for producing the dispersion evaluation function E 2 , means for revising a direction variable along a line of decreasing an energy function E, with all other direction variables being kept unchanged, said energy function being determined by an equation E=E 1 + λE 2 , where λ is a coefficient, said equipment further comprising judgement means for deciding the termination of said iterative calculation based on the calculated energy function value. An equipment of claim 5, wherein said judment means calculates a decrement ΔE of said energy function E for each cycle of revision of all the direction variables, compares the decrememt to a predetermined threshold Th, and terminates the revision of the direction variables when ΔE<Th.

Inventors: KAMEI TOSHIO, KAMEI, TOSHIO, KAMEI, TOSHIO C/O NEC CORPORATION
Applicants: NIPPON ELECTRIC CO, NEC CORPORATION
Application year: 1993
Main classification: G06K9
IPC codes: G06K9, G06T7, G06T5