Fingerprint pore extraction based on Marker controlled Watershed Segmentation

Automated Fingerprint Identification Systems (AFIS) have become a popular tool in many security and law enforcement applications. Most of these systems rely on the matching of fingerprints using the position and orientation of ridge endings and bifurcations within the fingerprint image. Sweat pores have been recently employed for automated fingerprint recognition, in which the pores are usually extracted by using a computationally expensive skeletonization method or through defining pore as isotropic or anisotropic models. In this paper, Extraction of pores is done by employing the Marker controlled Watershed Segmentation. Experimental results demonstrate that the method is effective even for 500 dpi images despite the common belief that images obtained at this resolution are not suitable for pore extraction. An explanation of the method is presented, the results are discussed, and future research possibilities are put forth.