Patent ID: 7133542

Claim:
A fingerprint verification device that compares a fingerprint of a person to be identified with a plurality of registered fingerprints, the fingerprint verification device comprising: means for storing characteristic information extracted from fingerprint images of registered persons; means for collecting a fingerprint image; means for extracting characteristic information from the fingerprint image collected by the fingerprint image collection means; means for narrowing down the registered fingerprints that will be used for identity determination, wherein the narrowing means calculates a similarity between part of the characteristic information of the person to be identified, which was extracted by the characteristic information extraction means, and corresponding part of the characteristic information of each registered person, which is stored in the characteristic information storage means, and then the narrowing means narrows down the registered fingerprints based upon the calculated similarity; and means for determining whether or not the characteristic information of each of the registered fingerprints, which were narrowed down by the narrowing means, matches the characteristic information of the person to be identified, which was extracted by the characteristic information extraction means, wherein the determination means calculates a similarity between other part of the characteristic information extracted from the fingerprint image of the person to be identified and corresponding part of the characteristic information of each of the registered fingerprints narrowed down, and then the determination means performs the identity determination based upon the sum of the calculated similarities.