Full-fingerprint volumetric subsurface imaging using Fourier-domain Optical Coherence Tomography

Despite the long history of automated fingerprint recognition, the state-of-the-art 2D sensors still struggle with abraded, dry, wet or greasy fingers, as well as extra-soft skin of the infant fingerprints. But above all, the current sensors suffer from vulnerabilities to presentation attacks, which greatly limits their applicability in unsupervised scenarios such as border control. Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) represents an alternative approach with a high potential to address the existing challenges. In this paper, we present a novel fingerprint sensor based on Fourier Domain Optical Coherence Tomography (FD-OCT), capable of capturing a 3D volumetric full fingerprint scan from a 2×2cm area, along with subsurface details such as sweat glands and the internal fingerprint. The novelty of our setup lies in the ability of FD-OCT-scanning a full 3D volumetric fingerprint at high-resolution at speeds that demonstrate the usability of 3D OCT in real-world applications.