Skin pattern and fingerprint classification system

Abstract: In order to provide a skin pattern classification system wherein skin patterns are traced and classified with a stable precision, the skin pattern classification system of the invention extracts ridge line data and valley line data from image data of a skin pattern. Minutiae are extracted from the ridge line data and the valley line data. Minutia correspondence extracting means (96) extract minutia correspondence information by detecting mutual correspondence among the minutiae from the ridge line data, valley line data and the minutiae. Characteristic line tracing means (97) extract features of characteristic lines of the skin pattern by finding and tracing characteristic lines referring to the minutia correspondence information, the ridge line data and the valley line data. Pattern classification means (98) classify the skin pattern according to the features of characteristic lines and the minutia correspondence information.

Description: This invention relates to a skin pattern and fingerprint classification system for tracing and classifying features of skin patterns as palm prints or fingerprints. A method for enhancing and purifying fingerprint images is known from a paper entitled "Enhancement and Feature Purification of Fingerprint Images", by D.C. Douglas Hung, Pattern Recognition, vol. 26, No. 11, Nov. 1993, pp. 1661-1671, wherein the method for the purification uses correspondences defined by combinations of foreground and background characteristics of fingerprint images, i.e. ridge and valley minutiae. The paper discloses the use of dual correspondences between ridge endings and valley bifurcations, and between ridge bifurcation and valley endings. The correspondence information does not, however, include information on singular points having no corresponding minutiae. The method leads to a fast and effective purification for ridge breaks. A method of fingerprint classification according to features extracted from thinned pattern lines obtained from fingerprint pictures is disclosed in a paper entitled "An Algorithm for Classification of Fingerprints Based on the Core", by Itoh et al., transactions of the Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers (IEICE), D-II, Vol. J73-D-II No. 10, pp. 1733-1741 (Oct. 1990), wherein a core of a fingerprint is detected in a fingerprint image after thinning, then ridge lines around the core point are traced for obtaining features of the ridge lines. According to kinds and distributions of the ridge line features, the fingerprint image is classified into one of four categories, Whorl, Arch, Right Loop or Left Loop. In the prior art, a core is detected first, on an assumption that a scanning line passing on the core point should have a largest number of cross points with ridge lines. So, at a first step, cross points with ridge lines in an appropriate region of a fingerprint image after thinning are count for each of a certain number of scanning lines drawn on the region in a horizontal and a vertical direction and in directions rotated π/4 from them. At a second step, coordinates of a temporary core point are calculated from coordinates of the scanning lines giving more than a certain number of cross points with ridge lines. At a third step, a region smaller than the region applied at former steps is settled around the temporary core point thus calculated and the first and the second steps are repeated concerning the smaller region. Thus, the core point of the fingerprint image is detected finally by repeating the first, the second and the third steps certain times. Then, in the prior art, a certain number of beginning points are considered on ridge lines around the core point thus detected. From each of the certain number of beginning points, each ridge line is traced in both ways for a certain length for extracting feature data as coordinates of the beginning point and both ending points or traced directions of ridge line segments. Referring to distribution of these feature data concerning the beginning points around the core, the fingerprint image is classified. FIG. 23 is a schematic diagram illustrating the tracing of ridge lines around a core having features to be classified as a Whorl, wherein a pair of beginning points are considered on a horizontal line passing through the core of the fingerprint, each of a pair of ridge lines crossing with the horizontal line at the beginning points are traced in both ways for a predetermined length, and two pairs of ending points are obtained. When distances between ending points of the two pairs are both shorter than the distance between beginning points, the core is defined to have certain value of features to be classified into the Whorl. Although method of ridge line tracing is not specified in the prior art, it is performed as follows on general, when a gap is find on the ridge line, for example. If an end point is detected on a way tracing a ridge line, another ridge line is searched along a vertical line having the same x -coordinates with the end point and the ridge line trace is continued on a ridge line found nearest from the end point. An example of these methods of ridge line tracing is described in a paper entitled "Feature Extraction for Fingerprint Classification", by T. CH. Malleswara Rao, Pattern Recognition, Vol. 8, pp. 181-192, 1976. The prior art above described is based on the assumption that a scanning line on the core point has a largest number of cross points with ridge lines. However, because ridge line image is not always so clear, the scanning line having a largest number of cross points may not always pass through the core point. So, there may occur some errors in the core point detection, resulting in wrong classification of fingerprints. This is a problem. Further, in order to reject indefinite data to avoid wrong classification caused by image degradation, methods of fingerprint classification based on ridge line tracing generally need complicated means with parameters difficult to be controlled for defining the rejection level. This is another problem. And further, when a second possibility of classification is desired to be assigned to a fingerprint image classified in a category with a low reliability, the assignment itself is hardly possible in the prior art but for an operator who knows very well the classification system. Still further, there is indeterminacy in the method of ridge line tracing when an ending-point or bifurcation of ridge line is found in the tracing as above described. Therefore, when a classification system based on ridge line tracing is applied for fingerprint classification, its analyzing performance is not sufficient, easily affected by curvature or inclination of the fingerprint. Therefore, a primary object of the invention is to provide a skin pattern and fingerprint classification system wherein skin patterns can be traced and classified with a stable precision, rejection level of indefinite data is easily controlled and a second classification possibility can be assigned without difficulty, even when it is applied for fingerprint classification. The present invention is defined in independent claims 1 and 4. The dependent claims define particular embodiments of the invention. Skin patterns including fingertip patterns are generally composed of upheaved parts called ridges of the outer skin and guttered parts called valleys between the ridges. The ridges and the valleys of the outer skin form a striped pattern, which can be roughly classified into three groups. FIG. 1A is a magnified image of an example of a first group, wherein ridges and valleys are ranged in parallel and a ridge end and a valley bifurcation are comprised as shown in FIG. 1B illustrating a line image of FIG. 1A for expressing line structure of the striped pattern. Examples of a second group are shown in FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B, each illustrating a line image of semicircle stripes of ridges and valleys surrounding a valley end or a ridge end respectively. FIG. 3A and FIG. 3B are also line images illustrating examples of the third group composed of delta stripes surrounding a valley bifurcation or a ridge bifurcation respectively. Among the three groups, semicircle stripe patterns of the second group are peculiar patterns found at parts called, in criminal laboratories, as Cores of fingerprints and regarded as an important feature for fingerprint classification together with delta stripe patterns of the third group found at parts called Deltas of fingerprints. In an embodiment of the present invention, singular points in these peculiar patterns are extracted for classifying fingerprints according thereto. Now, extraction of the singular point is described first. End points or bifurcation points of ridges or valleys (hereafter called generically as minutiae) are to be found usually coupled with another minutia in patterns of parallel stripe of the first group as shown in FIG. 1B, for example. That is, a valley bifurcation is found corresponding to a ridge end, while a ridge bifurcation is found corresponding to a valley end. Therefore, it can be said that there is a dual correspondence in each two minutiae in the parallel stripe pattern. As for this dual correspondence, there are descriptions in a Japanese patent application entitled "An Apparatus for Extracting Fingerprint Features" and laid open as a Provisional Publication No. 29888/'88 or that entitled "An Apparatus for and a Method of Extracting Image Features" and laid open as a Provisional Publication No. 108806/'93, for example. On the other hand, in the semicircle stripe patterns as shown in FIG. 2A or FIG. 2B, and in the delta stripe patterns as shown in FIG. 3A or FIG. 3B, where directions of ridges or valleys vary sharply, any minutia has no corresponding minutia. Hereafter, such minutia having no corresponding minutia is called a singular point, and a singular point found in a semicircle stripe pattern is called a core type singular point and that in a delta stripe pattern is called a delta type singular point. In an embodiment of the present invention, singular points, namely minutiae without corresponding minutia are detected at a first step, by searching and omitting minutiae having dual correspondence. Almost every of the singular points is found either in the Cores or the Deltas. Therefore, only by counting number of singular points of a fingerprint, the fingerprint can be classified with a certain exactitude, when it is sufficient for the fingerprint to be classified into one of three categories of Arch, Loop and Whorl. In plain Arch type fingerprints, for example, the core type singular point is hardly found when ridges and valleys of the fingerprints can be extracted exactly and the dual correspondence of the minutiae can be retrieved exactly. In tented Arch type fingerprints, however, the core type singular point is often found. In the Loop type fingerprint, only one core type singular point is found and almost every Whorl type fingerprint has two core type singular points. Therefore, fingerprint classification can be performed only by counting number of the singular points to an extent. Concerning a method for detecting the singular point, there is a paper entitled "Automatic Classification of Fingerprint Pattern", by Kawagoe et al, Computer Vision, Vol. 18-2, Information Processing Society of Japan, May 1982, where is disclosed also a simple method of fingerprint classification according to number of singular points, although through a different approach from the present invention. However, with fingerprint classification only based on the singular point number, sufficient classification performance can not be obtained as described in the paper itself. At a next step of the present invention, characteristic ridge lines or valley lines (hereafter called characteristic lines) around the singular point are found and traced for extracting features of the fingerprint to discriminate a category of the fingerprint to be classified into according thereto. Suppose that fingerprints are to be classified into five types, Plain Arch α, Tented Arch β, Right Loop γ, Left Loop δ and Whorl ∈, as illustrated in FIG. 4. In the case, numbers of the core type singular points to be found in a fingerprint of each of the five types, Plain Arch α, Tented Arch β, Right Loop γ, Left Loop δ and Whorl ∈, are 0, 1, 1, 1 and 2 respectively. Although the same numbers of the delta type singular points are to be found there too, they are sometimes difficult to be detected because fingerprints sufficiently wide for containing the delta type singular point can be hardly gathered in actual cases. For the reason, the present invention is described here in connection with a case where the core type singular point is made use of. Among fingerprints to be classified into the Loop type (the Right Loop and the Left Loop) and the Tented Arch, there are many fingerprints which are similar to each other and difficult to be classified into either of the two categories. The difference between the two categories must be discriminated by detecting whether a loop line can be found there or not. The reason is that the characteristic feature of the Tented Arch lies in that fingerprints of the type composed of arch lines has no loop line, while fingerprints of the Loop type comprise loop lines. Here, a loop line means a horseshoe shaped line of which both ends flow to the same side from top of the horseshoe shape, to right side in the Right Loop and to left side in the Left Loop, as a line a l to a r or b l to b r of FIG. 5 illustrating an example of a fingerprint of the Left Loop. On the other hand, an arch line means an arch shaped line of which each end flows to each other side from top of the arch shape, as a line c l to c r or d l to d r of FIG. 5. When there is an imperfection as a gap on a ridge line or a valley line, as is general, the ends of the line should be traced properly compensating the discontinuity of the line for discriminating its line type. In the Loop type, the core type singular point is surrounded by horseshoe part of a loop line as shown in FIG. 5, while it is surrounded by top part of an arch line in fingerprints of the Tented Arch as shown in FIG. 6. Therefore, it can be said that the difference between the Loop type and the Tented Arch can be discriminated by detecting whether the nearest line surrounding the core type singular point is a loop line or an arch line. As for fingerprints of the Whorl having two core type singular points, line flow around the two core type singular points can be classified into two categories as shown in FIG. 7A and FIG. 7B illustrating each example of the two categories of the Whorl. In FIG. 7A, the two core type singular points are connected by a ridge line or a valley line and surrounded by a circular line. In the other category of FIG. 7B, two whorl lines are flowing out of the two core type singular points. Therefore, by checking a characteristic line or characteristic lines connected to the core type singular points, fingerprints to be classified into other than the Whorl in spite of having two core type singular points, a Loop type fingerprint having two core type singular points as shown in FIG. 8 for example, can be discriminated, preventing wrong classification into the Whorl. In order to provide a skin pattern classification system based on the principle above described, a skin pattern classification system of an embodiment of the present invention is composed of a skin pattern tracing system and pattern classification means. In an embodiment of the invention, by setting an appropriate threshold value of the probability, skin patterns can be traced and classified with a stable precision, rejection level of indefinite data is easily controlled and a second classification possibility can be assigned without difficulty, even when it is applied for fingerprint classification. The foregoing, 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. 1A is a magnified image of an example of a skin pattern having ridges and valleys ranged in parallel. FIG. 1B illustrates a line image of FIG. 1A. FIG. 2A illustrates a line image of semicircle stripes of ridges and valleys surrounding a valley end. FIG. 2B illustrates a line image of semicircle stripes of ridges and valleys surrounding a ridge end. FIG. 3A is a line image illustrating an example of a skin pattern composed of delta stripes surrounding a valley bifurcation. FIG. 3B is a line image illustrating an example of a skin pattern composed of delta stripes surrounding a ridge bifurcation. FIG. 4 illustrates examples of fingerprints to be classified into five categories, Plain Arch α, Tented Arch β, Right Loop γ, Left Loop δ and Whorl ∈. FIG. 5 illustrates an example of a fingerprint of the Left Loop. FIG. 6 illustrates an example of a fingerprint of the Tented Arch. FIG. 7A illustrates an example of a fingerprint of the Whorl. FIG. 7B illustrates another example of a fingerprint of the Whorl. FIG. 8 shows a Loop type fingerprint having two core type singular points. FIG. 9 is a block diagram illustrating a basic configuration of a skin pattern classification system of an embodiment of the invention. FIG. 10 is a more detailed block diagram illustrating the embodiment of FIG. 9. FIG. 11 illustrates a bit map and an inverted bit map of an area of ridge line data. FIG. 12 illustrates some example of masking data sets. FIG. 13 is a flowchart illustrating processes for extracting dual correspondence between ridge ends and valley bifurcations. FIG. 14 shows an area of a skin pattern in a chessboard distance d from a ridge end E1 expressed as a square area with an extent of 2d × 2d. FIG. 15 is a schematic chart illustrating an example of the minutia list with reference information of dual correspondence. FIG. 16 illustrates an example of a skin pattern where a ridge end E0 and a valley bifurcation B0 are corresponding to each other. FIG. 17 illustrates examples of a line flow 17A having a pair of corresponding minutiae, a ridge bifurcation B1 and a valley end E1, and its deformation 17B. FIG. 18 shows examples of line flows for illustrating rules for tracing. FIG. 19 illustrates a pattern of the Whorl, on which intermediate points T0, T1, T2, ..., T j , ..., T n are set. FIG. 20 shows two tangent vectors at starting points of the two core lines of a pattern of the Whorl having almost opposite directions with each other. FIG. 21 shows examples of patterns of the Left Loop 21A, the Tented Arch 21B and the Right Loop 21C. FIG. 22 illustrates patterns 22A and 22B, each of which composed of a core line and surround lines and a ridge line segment P to Q1 or P to Q2 imperfect. FIG. 23 is a schematic diagram illustrating the tracing of a prior art of ridge lines around a core of a fingerprint having features to be classified as a Whorl. Now, embodiments of the present invention will be described in connection with the drawings. FIG. 9 is a block diagram illustrating a basic configuration of a skin pattern classification system of an embodiment of the invention. The skin pattern classification system of FIG. 9 is composed of a skin pattern tracing system and pattern classification means 98. The skin pattern tracing system comprises; image data input means 91 wherein image data of a skin pattern are input, ridge line extracting means 92 for extracting ridge line data corresponding to ridges of the skin pattern from the image data, valley line extracting means 93 for extracting valley line data corresponding to valleys of the skin pattern from the image data, ridge minutia extracting means 94 for extracting ridge minutiae from the ridge line data, valley minutia extracting means 95 for extracting valley minutiae from the valley line data, minutia correspondence extracting means 96 for extracting minutia correspondence information by detecting dual correspondence among the ridge minutiae and the valley minutiae, from the ridge line data, the valley line data, the ridge minutiae and the valley minutiae, and characteristic line tracing means 97 for extracting features of characteristic lines of the skin pattern by finding and tracing the characteristic lines referring to the minutia correspondence information, the ridge line data and the valley line data. The pattern classification means 98 classifies the skin pattern according to the features of characteristic lines and the minutia correspondence information. FIG. 10 is a more detailed block diagram illustrating the embodiment of FIG. 9. The ridge line extracting means 92 is provided with an image processor for obtaining binary image data from the image data input through the image data input means 91 and thinning means for extracting the ridge line data from the binary image data. The valley line extracting means 93 is provided with image reversing means for obtaining reversed image data of the ridge line data and thinning means for extracting the valley line data from the reversed image data of the ridge line data. The ridge minutia extracting means 94 have functions for detecting and listing up ridge ends and ridge bifurcations, while the valley minutia extracting means 95 have functions for detecting and listing up valley ends and valley bifurcations. The minutia correspondence extracting means 96 have functions for searching dual correspondence of the ridge ends to the valley bifurcations and those of the valley ends to the ridge bifurcations referring to the ridge line data and the valley line data and for outputting the minutia correspondence information for every of the minutiae, that is, information concerning its paired minutia if it has a corresponding minutia, or its state of solitude if it has no correspondence. The characteristic line tracing means 97 have functions for counting up number of core type singular points based on the minutia correspondence information, finding and tracing characteristic lines around the core type singular points according to number of the core type singular points referring to the ridge line data and the valley line data, and verifying features extracted from the characteristic lines (including feedback function for repeating the function for finding and tracing characteristic lines according to the verification result). The pattern classification means 98 is equipped with functions for pre-classifying the skin pattern into detailed categories according to the minutia correspondence information delivered from the minutia correspondence extracting means 96, the number of core type singular points counted by the characteristic line tracing means 97 and the features of the characteristic lines verified there, and classifying the skin pattern into one of output categories referring to a probability table indicating each probability to be classified into each output categories of skin patterns pre-classified into each of the detailed categories. Heretofore, configuration of an embodiment of the invention for skin pattern classification is described in connection with FIG. 9 and FIG. 10. However it should be noted that an embodiment for fingerprint classification can be provided with the same configuration. In the case, image data of a fingerprint are input instead of the skin pattern to the image data input means 91, from which ridge line data and valley line data corresponding to ridges and valleys of the finger tip pattern are extracted by the ridge line extracting means 92 and the valley line extracting means 93. Features of characteristic lines of the fingerprint are extracted in the characteristic line tracing means 97, and the fingerprint is classified into the output categories at pattern classification means 98 after per-classified into the detailed categories. As for the image input means 91, any conventional means appropriate for obtaining image data of a skin pattern or a fingerprint, as an image scanner or a CCD camera, can be applied. Or the image input means 91 may be a terminal for receiving tele-communicated image data. Here, the embodiment will be described by way of example of an image data of 500 DPI. As for the ridge line extracting means 92 too, conventional means can be applied. For obtaining binary image data from the input data, there can be applied such means, for example, as disclosed in a paper entitled "Automated Fingerprint Identification by Minutia-Network Feature ― Feature Extraction Processes ―", by Asai et al, D-II of the IEICE, Vol. J72-D-II, No. 5, pp. 724-732, May 1989. For thinning the binary image data into ridge line data, there can be applied, for example, a thinning algorithm introduced as Tamura's thinning algorithm in a document entitled "SPIDER USER'S MANUAL", published by Kyodo System Kaihatsu K.K., 1982. In the Tamura's thinning algorithm, the thinning can be performed either by retaining 4-connectivity or by retaining 8-connectivity. In the embodiment, the thinning is described to be performed by retaining the 8-connectivity along Tamura's thinning algorithm. As for the valley line extracting means 93, the valley line data are obtained by thinning again the reversed binary image data obtained by reversing the thinned ridge line data, in the embodiment. Here, as the ridge line data are retaining the 8-connectivity, the reversed data are first thinned retaining the 4-connectivity several times and then thinned retaining the 8-connectivity, not to derange continuity of valley line data. When ridge line data of the 8-connectivity as shown in an example of a bit map 11A illustrated in FIG. 11 are reversed into a bit map 11B of FIG. 11, an area b1 of the bit map 11B corresponding to an area a 1 of the bit map 11A, which is separated from an area a 2 or an area a 3, becomes connected with areas b 2 and b 3 corresponding to the areas a 2 and a 3, in case the bit map 11B is treated as data of the 8-connectivity. This is the reason the reversed data are first thinned retaining the 4-connectivity in the embodiment before thinning by retaining the 8-connectivity for obtaining the valley line data. In the embodiment of FIG. 10, the valley line data are obtained from ridge line data. But the ridge line data may be obtained from valley line data extracted directly from the binary image data, or both of them may be extracted directly in parallel from the binary image data when parallel processing can be applied for high-speed processing. Further, for extracting the ridge line data and the valley line data, there can be applied also a technology called Voronoi-Line Graph, which is described, for example, in a paper entitled "Extraction of Contour Lines Using Neighboring Relationships Based on the Voronoi-Line Graph" by Mizutani et al., D-II of the IEICE, Vol. J74-D-II, No. 11, pp. 1499-1506, Nov. 1991. The ridge line data and the valley line data after thinning processes are delivered to the ridge minutia extracting means 94 and the valley minutia extracting means 95 respectively, wherein masking data sets are prepared, some examples of which are illustrated in FIG. 12. Thinned line bit maps of the ridge line data and the valley line data are scanned and compared with each of the masking data sets of 3 × 3 bits. When any 3 x 3 bits of the thinned line bit maps coincides with any of the masking data sets, center point of the 3 × 3 bits is defined as a minutia. Minutiae corresponding to one of the masking data sets of 12A of FIG. 12 are end points and those of 12B are bifurcations. Some details concerning minutia extraction from thinned line bit maps are described also in the Japanese patent application laid open as Provisional Publication No. 108806/'93 beforehand referred to. Thus, the ridge minutia extracting means 94 and the valley minutia extracting means 95 extract ridge ends, ridge bifurcations, valley ends and valley bifurcations from the ridge line data and the valley line data, and output a minutia list registered of minutia information as their coordinates, kind, etc. Now, processing in the minutia correspondence extracting means 96 will be described referring to a flowchart of FIG. 13 illustrating processes for extracting dual correspondence between ridge ends and valley bifurcations. First, at step S1, a valley bifurcation is searched on following conditions for each of the ridge ends registered in the minutia list delivered from the ridge minutia extracting means 94 and the valley minutia extracting means 95. A first of the conditions is that the distance of the valley bifurcation to be searched from concerning ridge end is smaller than a predetermined value, and the second is that the line segment between the ridge end and the valley bifurcation does not cross with any other valley line. Here, the distance between two minutiae may be measured with any unit, Euclidean distance, city block distance or chessboard distance, for example, according to definitions described in a document entitled, "Image Analysis Handbook", published by Tokyo University Press, 1991. In the following paragraphs, the embodiment is described as the distance is measured with the chessboard distance. An area in a chessboard distance d from a ridge end E1 is expressed as a square area with an extent of 2 d × 2 d as an example shown in FIG. 14, wherein are comprised valley bifurcations B1 and B2. Therefore, for the ridge end E1, the valley bifurcations B1 and B2 are first picked out from the minutia list. Then, cross points on two line segments E1 to B1 and E1 to B2 are counted and the valley bifurcation B1 is registered as a candidate of the corresponding minutia of the ridge end E1 since the line segment E1 to B1 has no cross point. In the example of FIG. 14, the valley bifurcation B2 is left unregistered because there is two cross points on the line segment E1 to B2. Thus, in the step 1, corresponding valley bifurcation, if there is any, of each ridge end is picked out and registered as a candidate in the column of each concerning ridge end. And, at the same time, in the column of the corresponding valley bifurcation, the concerning ridge end is also registered as a candidate, for the convenience of following processes. FIG. 15 is a schematic chart illustrating an example of the minutia list with reference information of dual correspondence thus registered. In FIG. 15, there are illustrated a ridge end list E1 to En and a corresponding valley bifurcation list B1 to Bn, wherein minutiae E1, E8, B1 and B4 are solitude minutiae having no corresponding minutia, a pair of minutiae E2 and B2 are minutiae having one to one correspondence, and others are minutiae having one to multi or multi to multi correspondence and unable to extract the unique correspondence. Then at step 2, minutiae having no corresponding minutia, such as E1, E8, B1 and B4 of FIG. 15, are registered as singular points. At step 3, minutiae having one to one correspondence as the pair of minutiae E2 and B2 are also registered. In the registration of state of correspondence at steps 2 and 3, information concerning the corresponding minutia and the relation to the lines is also registered together, for the convenience of following processes. Here, the information concerning the corresponding minutia and the relation to the lines means in which the corresponding minutia exists of three areas divided by three lines starting from the concerning bifurcation, when the concerning minutia is a bifurcation. It means, when the concerning minutia is an end point, which of the three lines starting from the corresponding bifurcation exists in opposite side of the concerning end point. By way of an example illustrated in FIG. 16 where a ridge end E0 and a valley bifurcation B0 are corresponding to each other, the ridge end E0 is a part of a ridge line R1 including an intermediate point E1 and exists in an area X which is divided by two valley lines V2 and V3 starting from the valley bifurcation B0, and situated in the opposite side of the other valley line V1 dividing other two areas Y and Z. This information concerning the corresponding minutia and the relation to the lines can be obtained as follows, for example. Three intermediate points B1, B2 and B3 are set on the three valley lines starting from the valley bifurcation B0, each being 5 to 10 pixels away, for example, from the valley bifurcation B0. By calculating and arranging angle values of vectors B0E0, B0B1, B0B2 and B0B3 in order, the area including the ridge end E0, or the valley line opposite to the ridge end E0 can be specified. In another example for obtaining the information, three line segments B2 to B3, B3 to B1 and B1 to B3 are considered. Alienating the three intermediate points B1 to B3 pixel by pixel from the valley bifurcation B0, the line segment which passes on the ridge end E0 gives the necessary information. Now, processes at step 4 for extracting a unique correspondence from one to multi or multi to multi correspondence are described returning to FIG. 13. At step S41, every minutia having one to multi or multi to multi correspondence are grouped into one of groups, each of them having a different number, in such way as any minutia of each group has correspondence with at least one minutia in its group and has no correspondence with any minutia of any other group. At step S42, minutiae in each group are paired in such way as number of minutiae unpaired, which are candidates of singular points, becomes minimum, for suppressing pseudo-singular points generated by noises. At step S43, when there are plural ways of pairing which give the same minimum number of singular point candidates, value of an evaluation function is calculated for each of the plural ways. Here, the evaluation function may be defined with variables such as angles composed by the concerning end points, the bifurcations, or intermediate points on the three lines of the bifurcations or distances between the concerning end points and the bifurcations. Here in the embodiment, a first evaluation value is calculated from angles composed of each bifurcation and intermediate points on its lines. For a second evaluation value which is applied when a unique correspondence can not be determined by the first evaluation value, sum of distances between minutiae of each corresponding pair is considered. The first evaluation value EV1 according to angles is obtained as follows. Referring to FIG. 16, an angle  of the bifurcation B0 opposing to corresponding end point E0 is defined with the bifurcation B0 and two intermediate points B2' and B3' on two lines surrounding the end point E0. Here the intermediate points B2' and B3' are better to be more pixels (10 to 20) away from the bifurcation B0 than the intermediate points B2 and B3 considered at step 2 or 3 for specifying the area including the end point E0, for obtaining significant difference of the evaluation value. Thus defining each i -th angle  i for each i -th bifurcation, the first evaluation value EV1 is calculated according to following equation. Among the plural ways of pairing which give the same minimum number of singular point candidates, a way which gives the maximum value of EV1 is considered as the way of pairing which brings the most appropriate combination of unique correspondence. There may occur a rare case where plural ways of pairing give the same evaluation value EV1, since it is calculated from digital image data. In the case, the second evaluation value EV2 is calculated according to following equation. where d i is a distance between minutiae of each i -th pair of corresponding minutiae. Among the plural ways of pairing giving the same first evaluation value EV1, a way which gives the minimum value of the second evaluation value EV2 is considered as the way of pairing which brings the most appropriate combination of unique correspondence, in the case. Thus, the most appropriate combination of unique correspondence is decided and singular points are finally selected from their candidates at step S44. In the following paragraphs, a concrete example of processes from step S41 to step S44 is described referring to the example of FIG. 15. Minutiae having one to multi or multi to multi correspondence in the minutia list of FIG. 15 are grouped in three groups, {E3, E4, B3}, {E5, E6, B5, B6} and {E7, E9, B7, B8, B9} at step S41. At step S42, two ways of pairing, giving minimum number of unpaired minutiae, can be considered for the group {E3, E4, B3}. A first way is to pair (E3, B3) leaving E4 as a candidate of singular point. A second way is to pair (E4, B3) leaving E3. As for the group {E5, E6, B5, B6}, only a way of pairing (E5, B6) and (E6, B5) gives no unpaired minutia. Similarly for the group {E7, E9, B7, B8, B9}, three way of pairing, that is pairing (E7, B7) and (E9, B8) leaving B9, pairing (E7, B7) and (E9, B9) leaving B8 and pairing (E7, B7) and (E9, B9) leaving B7 can be considered. The group {E5, E6, B5, B6}, having only one appropriate way of pairing, passes the step S43 and each of the pairs is registered at step S44 as each pair of corresponding minutiae. As for the groups {E3, E4, B3} and {E7, E8, B7, B8, B9}, the first evaluation value EV1, and the second evaluation value EV2 if necessary, is calculated for each way of pairing at step S43 and most appropriate pairs of minutiae are selected and registered at step S44. Heretofore, processes in the minutia correspondence extracting means 96 are described in connection with the example of the minutia list of ridge ends and valley bifurcations. But the same processes are performed here in the minutia correspondence extracting means 96 also for minutia list of ridge bifurcations and valley ends. Thus, minutia correspondence is extracted in the embodiment. As for the information concerning this minutia correspondence and their relation to lines, the minutia correspondence extracting means 96 output, at step S5, coordinates of minutiae, kinds of minutiae (end point or bifurcation, ridge point or valley point), lines starting from minutiae, and positional relations of corresponding minutiae to the lines, for example. Then, referring to the minutia correspondence information thus obtained and the ridge line data and the valley line data, the characteristic line tracing means 97 trace and extract features of characteristic lines concerning singular points, namely minutiae having no correspondence. In the following paragraphs, processes in the characteristic line tracing means 97 are described by way of example concerning core type singular points. As shown in FIGs. 5 to 7, fingerprints of the Tented Arc, the Loop type and the Whorl have the core type singular point or points in their center region in many cases. As beforehand described, number of the core type singular point to be found in a fingerprint is 0, 1, 1 and 2 in Arch, Tented Arch, Loop type and Whorl respectively. However in actual cases, this number may fluctuate because of noises, and so can not be relied upon with high accuracy. For the reason, features of characteristic lines surrounding singular points are used for the pattern classification besides the number of singular points, in the embodiment. The ridge line flow around the core type singular point found in center region of a fingerprint is an important factor for the pattern classification. In the embodiment, number of end points without any correspondence, namely number of core type singular points is counted up first from the minutia correspondence information concerning ridge ends and valley ends. Secondly, tracing of characteristic line or lines around the singular point is performed in a way, which is described afterwards, according to the number of the singular point. Thirdly, verification is performed whether the characteristic line accords or does not accord to the category of expected pattern. Here, in the first process of counting the number of core type singular point, sometimes a singular point may be found in other region than the center region or the delta region because of a noise superimposed on the fingerprint image. For example, a line flow 17A of FIG. 17, having a pair of corresponding minutiae, a ridge bifurcation B1 and a valley end E1, may be deformed to a line flow 17B of FIG. 17, wherein the valley end E1 and a valley bifurcation B2 may be defined as a core type singular point and a delta type singular point by pairing a ridge end E2 and a valley bifurcation B3. In order to suppress these noise influences, a verification process is provided in the function for counting up number of core type singular points of the characteristic line tracing means 97. In the verification process, an appearance possibility A ( x, y ) is calculated for each sub-region having coordinates ( x, y ) according to following equation. where D ( x,y ) is ridge direction value, described in the paper beforehand referred to entitled "Automated Fingerprint Identification by Minutia-Network Feature ― Feature Extraction Processes ―", by Asai et al, of a sub-region of coordinates ( x, y ). By omitting singular points found in sub-regions where the appearance possibility A ( x, y ) is lower than a predetermined value, reliability of singular point is enhanced in the embodiment. Now the second process of tracing of characteristic line or lines is described. When more than two core type singular points are counted in a fingerprint, data concerning the fingerprint are rejected without any tracing as data unable to be classified degraded by ink spots or an uneven stamping. When two core type singular points are counted, characteristic line tracing is performed assuming that the concerning pattern is the Whorl, while it is performed assuming that the pattern is the Tented Arch or the Loop type when number of core type singular point is one. Both the ridge line and the valley line may end or bifurcate on its way of tracing. So, there must be some rules for tracing a characteristic line until its real end. Referring to FIG. 18, the rules for tracing are described. When a tracing ends at an end point, the tracing is to restart on the opposite line of the three lines starting from the corresponding bifurcation as illustrated in a line flow 18A of FIG. 18. This is a rule. When a tracing encounters a bifurcation as illustrated in a line flow 18B of FIG. 18, the tracing is to restart on the line starting from the corresponding end point. This is another rule. When a tracing arrives at a joining bifurcation with another line as illustrated in a line flow 18C, the tracing is to be continued on the third line, that is the opposite line to the corresponding ending point, of the three lines starting from the bifurcation. This is still another rule. The other rule is that a tracing is to be continued until the tracing arrives at a singular point, goes out of region of the fingerprint image data, or the tracing is performed for more than a predetermined length. Here, it is to be noted that these rules can be followed easily since information concerning the corresponding minutia and also the relation to the lines starting from the concerning bifurcation is registered by the minutia correspondence extracting means 96, as beforehand described. As for information concerning the region of the fingerprint image data, it can be obtained from data density, for example, of each sub-region, dividing the image data into sub-regions, as described in the paper beforehand referred to entitled "Automated Fingerprint Identification by Minutia-Network Feature ― Feature Extraction Processes ―", by Asai et al. Here also, a verification process is desired since characteristic lines can not always be traced correctly because of the noises. In the following paragraphs, the tracing and verification process is described by way of example of tracing characteristic lines of a fingerprint having two core type singular points. A core line denoting a line starting from a core type singular point, the core line starts from either of a ridge end or a valley end. Fingerprints to be classified into the Whorl can be further classified into three categories. One of the three categories is Circle as shown in FIG. 7A, where the characteristic line starts from a core type singular point and ends at another core type singular point. Others are Double Loop and Spiral, where two core lines form a double spiral as shown in FIG. 7B. A difference lies in that the Double Loop is composed of two core lines starting from two ridge ends or two valley ends, while the Spiral is composed of a core line starting from a ridge end and another core line starting from a valley end. Each of these three categories, coinciding with the categories used in the Japanese criminal laboratory, has its own feature concerning its characteristic lines, enabling the verification of the characteristic line tracing. Although the difference whether two core lines start from end points of different kinds or the same kind is useful for discriminating the difference between the Double Loop and the Spiral, it is invalid for verification of the Whorl. Therefore, following three items of the features of characteristic lines are considered for the verification in the embodiment. The first item is the state of end point of each core line. The second item is the whirling directions of the two core lines. The third item is the directions of tangent vectors of the two core lines at their starting point. As for the first item, a pattern is determined as the Circle of the Whorl only when a first core line starting from a first core type singular point ends at a second core type singular point and a second core line starting from the second core type singular point, which is to be the same with the first core line, ends also at the first core type singular point. If the second core line does not arrive to the first core type singular point when it is traced from the second core type singular point, even though the first core line traced from the first core type singular point arrives to the second core type singular point, image data of the pattern is treated as unable to be classified. The second item of verification is applied for patterns having two core type singular points and not determined as the Circle nor as unable to be classified by the first item. The second item of verification is performed as follows. Referring to FIG. 19 illustrating a pattern of the Whorl, intermediate points T0, T1, T2, ..., T j , ..., T n ( j, n being positive integers) are set on every three pixels, for example, of a core line starting from a core type singular point E i ( i being 1 or 2). E i T j being a vector from the core type singular point to an intermediate point T j , a sum S i of each exterior product S ij of vectors E i T j -1 and E i T j is calculated as follows. Here, absolute value of S ij represents area of triangle E i T j -1 T j and positive or negative of S ij represents direction of a line segment from T j -1 to T j , and so, absolute value of the sum S i represents size of the whirl and positive or negative of the sum S i represents whirling direction of the pattern. As two spirals formed by two core lines should have the same direction in the Double Loop or the Spiral, a pattern of which two features, that is, the two sums S 1 and S 2 have not relation S 1 • S 2 > 0 is determined as unable to be classified. The third item of verification is applied for patterns nominated as the Whorl by the second item. Generally, two tangent vectors at starting points of the two core lines of a pattern of the Whorl have almost opposite directions with each other as shown in FIG. 20. On the other hand, in the example of FIG. 8, both of the two tangent vectors have the same direction. Therefore, setting intermediate points T01 and T02 on each of two core lines near each starting point as illustrated in FIG. 20, following evaluation value ε is calculated from tangent vectors E1T01 and E2T02. ε = E1T01 × E2T02/( E1T01 E2T02 ) When the evaluation value ε is not in a range -0.5 to 0, for example, the concerning pattern is determined as unable to be classified. In patterns having two core type singular points and determined as unable to be classified by the first item, the second item or the third item, there are some cases where a delta type singular point is found near the core line. For example, when there is a line flow as 17B of FIG. 17 in a pattern of the Loop type, because of a noise for example, two core type singular points, one being E1, are found in the pattern, E2 and B2 regarded as corresponding minutiae. In the case, there is left a delta type singular point B1 near the core type singular point E1. Therefore, the patterns determined as unable to be classified by the tree items and have a delta type singular point near one of their two core type singular points may be treated as patterns having only one core type singular point, disregarding the delta type singular point and the core type singular point near the delta type singular point. They can be left determined as unable to be classified at this stage in the process of the characteristic line tracing means 97. Now, processes of the characteristic line tracing for patterns having only one core type singular point is described. Referring to FIG. 21, the characteristic line tracing is performed here assuming that the pattern is to be one of the Left Loop, pattern 21A, the Tented Arch, pattern 21B and the Right Loop, pattern 21C of FIG. 21. And here, the characteristic line tracing is performed also on ridge lines surrounding the core type singular point, in addition to the core line. The ridge lines surrounding the core type singular point are called hereafter as surround lines, a first surround line, a second surround line, etc., from inner ridge lines. Returnning to FIG. 21, on a core line, which may be a ridge line or a valley line, an intermediate point T is set 20 to 30 pixels away from a core type singular point E. On a straight line L starting from the intermediate point T and passing through the core type singular point E, there is set a cross point Cr with a first surround line. From the cross point Cr, the first surround line is traced in both directions, right and left, until end points E l and E r . In a first process, direction of the core line is verified. Since surround lines are generally tented upwards in the Tented Arch and the Loop type, a pattern having only one core type singular point and direction of its vector ET is upward is determined as abnormal and unable to be classified. Then relation of positions of the end points E l and E r to the cross point Cr is verified next. When the end points E l and E r are both left side of the center point Cr, the concerning pattern is nominated as the Left Loop. When they are both right side of the center point Cr, the concerning pattern is nominated as the Right Loop, while otherwise as the Tented Arch. However, there may occur an indeterminacy in the characteristic line tracing above described because of a noise superimposed on image data, for example. By way of example of a pattern 22A of FIG. 22 illustrating patterns 22A and 22B, each of them composed of a core line and surround lines, suppose a case where a ridge line segment P to Q1 or P to Q2 is imperfect. According to the rules for tracing beforehand described, it is undetermined whether the trace may be continued through the ridge end Q1 or Q2. When the trace is continued through the ridge end Q1, the pattern 21A is regarded as the Left Loop, while it is regarded as the Tented Arch when the trace is continued through the ridge end Q2. For the reason, a second surround line is traced in the same way, in addition to the first surround line, and when results for the first and the second surround line are inconsistent with each other, even patterns once nominated to a category are also determined as unable to be classified. Now, processes in the pattern classification means 98 is described. By the characteristic line tracing means 97, patterns are classified into one of the Whorl, the Left Loop, the Right Loop, the Tented Arch and the Plain Arch or determined as unable to be classified. So, the results of the characteristic line tracing means 97 themselves can be available as the classification result of the system. However in the embodiment, the pattern classification means 98 are provided for further improvement of classification precision and for convenience of rejection level control and second possibility assignment, by malting use of a probability table. In the pattern classification means 98 of the embodiment, every pattern processed in the characteristic line tracing means 97 is pre-classified into one of detailed categories. The detailed categories are prepared according to number of core type singular points, number of delta type singular points and the classification results of the characteristic line tracing means 97. The number of core type singular points is classified into four categories, 0, 1, 2 and more than 2. The number of delta type singular points is also classified into the same. The classification result of the characteristic line tracing means 97 has six categories, the Plain Arch, the Tented Arch, the Left Loop, the Right Loop, the Whorl and a category unable to be classified. Therefore, there can be prepared 96 = 4 × 4 × 6 detailed categories expressed as c i ( i = 1, ..., 96). For each detailed category c i , five probabilities P ji are prepared, j being one of symbols A, T, L, R or W, each representing one of the five categories C j , the Plain Arch C A , the Tented Arch C T , the Left Loop C L , the Right Loop C R and the Whorl C W respectively. The probabilities P ji can be obtained from a sufficient number of learning data as follows. When a number of learning data already classified, by manual for example, into one of the five categories C j are pre-classified by a system of the embodiment into detailed categories c i , the probability P ji is calculated according to following equation. where N ki represents number of learning data already classified into a category C k of the five categories and pre-classified into a detailed category c i . When each number of patterns of the Plain Arch, the Tented Arch, the Left Loop, the Right Loop and the Whorl pre-classified into a detailed category c i is 3, 5, 89, 1, and 2 respectively, then the probabilities P Ai , P Ti , P Li , P Ri and P Wi are 3%, 5%, 89%, 1% and 2% respectively. About 10,000 cases of leaning data will provide a probability table sufficiently precise. As for the pattern classification, there are several cases, a case where every pattern is expected to be classified without rejection, or a case where unreliable patterns are expected to be classified with a second possibility, for example. In the following paragraphs, some examples of usage of the probability table are described according to the cases. When every pattern is expected to be classified into one of the five categories C j , the pattern classification means 98 outputs one most probable category of the detailed category c i where the concerning pattern is pre-classified. For the above example of c i , the Left Loop C L which gives P Li = 89% is output. When a first possible category having a peciseness more than a threshold value th is expected, the most probable category is output only on condition its probability is not less than the threshold value th . For the example, the Left Loop C L is output when th ≤ 89% and otherwise none is output. When there is expected a first possible category, if it has a sufficient preciseness, and a first and a second possible categories, if the first possible category has not sufficient possibility and can be reinforced by the second possibility, the pattern classification means 98 behave as follows. For the example, C is the Left Loop C L when th ≤ 89%, C is Left Loop C L or the Plain Arch C A when 89% < th ≤ 94% and none is output when th > 94%. Thus, in the embodiment of the present invention, pattern classification is performed with a stable precision, its rejection level is easily controlled and a second classification possibility is assigned without difficulty. Heretofore, the embodiment is described mainly in connection with the fingerprint classification. However, it can be understood that the embodiment can be applied in other skin pattern classification as palm pattern classification as well as in the fingerprint classification, in the scope of the present invention.

Claims: A skin pattern tracing system comprising: image data input means (91) wherein image data of a skin pattern are input; ridge line extracting means (92) for extracting ridge line data corresponding to ridges of said skin pattern from said image data; valley line extracting means (93) for extracting valley line data corresponding to valleys of said skin pattern from said image data; ridge minutiae extracting means (94) for extracting ridge minutiae from said ridge line data; valley minutiae extracting means (95) for extracting valley minutiae from said valley line data; minutiae correspondence extracting means (96) for extracting minutiae correspondence information by detecting dual correspondence among said ridge minutiae and said valley minutiae, from said ridge line data, said valley line data, said ridge minutiae and said valley minutiae; and characteristic line tracing means (97) for extracting features of characteristic lines of said skin pattern by finding and tracing said characteristic lines referring to said minutiae correspondence information, said ridge line data and said valley line data; said dual correspondence being defined by combinations of a pair of a ridge end and a valley bifurcation or a pair of a ridge bifurcation and a valley end with no valley lines or ridge lines crossing the line therebetween, said minutiae correspondence information including at least information on said combination and information on singular points having no corresponding minutiae. A skin pattern classification system comprising a skin pattern tracing system recited in claim 1 and pattern classification means (98) for classifying said skin pattern according to said minutiae correspondence information and said features of characteristic lines traced by said skin pattern tracing system based on singular minutiae. A skin pattern classification system recited in claim 2, wherein said pattern classification means (98) comprises: means for pre-classifying said skin pattern into one of detailed categories, said detailed categories defined according to said features of characteristic lines and said minutiae correspondence information; a probability table to be referred to with each of said detailed categories for obtaining classification probabilities, each of said classification probabilities corresponding to each of output categories and indicating probability of a skin pattern pre-classified into said each of said detailed categories to be classified into said each of output categories; and means for classifying a skin pattern pre-classified into each of said detailed categories into one of said output categories referring to said probability table. A fingerprint tracing system comprising: image data input means (91) wherein image data of fingerprint are input; ridge line extracting means (92) for extracting ridge line data corresponding to ridges of a pattern of said fingerprint from said image data; valley line extracting means (93) for extracting valley line data corresponding to valleys of said pattern from said image data; ridge minutiae extracting means (94) for extracting ridge minutiae from said ridge line data; valley minutia extracting means (95) for extracting valley minutiae from said valley line data; minutiae correspondence extracting means (96) for extracting minutiae correspondence information by detecting dual correspondence among said ridge minutiae and said valley minutiae, from said ridge line data, said valley line data, said ridge minutiae and said valley minutiae; and characteristic line tracing means (97) for extracting features of characteristic lines of said fingerprint by finding and tracing said characteristic lines referring to said minutiae correspondence information, said ridge line data and said valley line data; said dual correspondence being defined by combinations of a pair of a ridge end and a valley bifurcation or a pair of a ridge bifurcation and a valley end with no valley lines or ridge lines crossing the line therebetween, said minutiae correspondence information including at least information on said combination and information on singular points having no corresponding minutiae. A fingerprint classification system comprising a fingerprint tracing system recited in claim 4 and pattern classification means (98) for classifying said fingerprint according to said minutiae correspondence information and said features of characteristic lines traced by said skin pattern tracing system based on singular minutiae. A fingerprint classification system recited in claim 5, wherein said pattern classification means (98) comprises: means for pre-classifying said fingerprint into one of detailed categories, said detailed categories defined according to said features of characteristic lines and said minutiae correspondence information; a probability table to be referred to with each of said detailed categories for obtaining classification probabilities, each of said classification probabilities corresponding to each of output categories and indicating probability of a fingerprint pre-classified into said each of said detailed categories to be classified into said each of output categories; and means for classifying a fingerprint pre-classified into each of said detailed categories into one of said output categories referring to said probability table.

Inventors: KAMEI TOSHIO, KAMEI, TOSHIO
Applicants: NIPPON ELECTRIC CO, NEC CORPORATION
Application year: 1996
Main classification: G06K9
IPC codes: G06K9, G06T7