Patent ID: 6845173

Claim:
A fingerprint input apparatus, comprising: a fingerprint sensor for reading a fingerprint; a fingerprint analyzer for acquiring a fingerprint image corresponding to said read fingerprint, analyzing the quality of said fingerprint image based on an image quality and/or feature points of said fingerprint image, and generating an evaluation result if a result of said analysis indicates a quality malfunction; and an evaluation result display for displaying said evaluation result in a plurality of ways, wherein, if said quality malfunction indicates a first quality malfunction associated with said image quality, said fingerprint analyzer generates a first evaluation result that indicates a cause of said first quality malfunction and/or a countermeasure for said cause of said first quality malfunction as said evaluation result, and if said quality malfunction indicates a second quality malfunction associated with said feature points, said fingerprint analyzer generates a second evaluation result that indicates a cause of said second quality malfunction and/or a countermeasure for said cause of said second quality malfunction as said evaluation result, wherein said first quality malfunction includes at least one of a quality malfunction associated with a fingerprint display area of said fingerprint image and a quality malfunction associated with a shape of ridges of said fingerprint image, and wherein the quality malfunction associated with the shape of ridges of said fingerprint image includes a continuity malfunction of a ridge of said fingerprint image.