Patent ID: 7643660

Claim:
An apparatus, comprising: a fingerprint source for producing a test image of a fingerprint-under-test; and a processing unit, coupled to said fingerprint source, for: producing a test ridge map from said test image and a reference ridge map from each of one or more reference fingerprint images; extracting fingerprint points of interest from said ridge maps; screening candidate reference ridge maps based upon a correspondence between said points of interest from said reference ridge maps and said points of interest from said test ridge map wherein said correspondence includes a first threshold and one or more candidate ridge maps having said correspondence with a first predetermined relationship to said first threshold are included in a set of candidate ridge maps; comparing local ridge data surrounding one or more points of interest of said test ridge map with a second predetermined relationship to a second threshold with local ridge data surrounding corresponding one or more points of interest of each of said test ridge maps in said set of candidate ridge maps; and asserting a comparison signal responsive to a correspondence between said local ridge data of said test ridge map and said local ridge data from one or more candidate ridge maps of said set of candidate ridge maps.