Utilization of Spatial Filtering for Enhancement of Fingerprint Images

The field of forensic technology is experiencing rapid growth in contemporary times. Contemporary forensic science techniques are primarily based on the fundamental principles of pattern recognition. The process of enhancing fingerprint images, while a relatively minor component within the fields of forensic research and biometrics, holds significant value. The process of fingerprint enhancement is a crucial and complex task, as it involves the extraction of minutiae while simultaneously attempting to eliminate any spurious minutiae. In contemporary times, forensic technology holds significant importance. The quality of fingerprint images often tends to be suboptimal, thereby necessitating the crucial step of image enhancement in the processing of fingerprint images. Typically, fingerprint images undergo a single-stage enhancement process in either the spatial or frequency domain. The present study introduces a novel methodology for enhancing fingerprint images. A proposed methodology has been presented that utilizes a series of thin band pass filters to perform spatial and frequency domain enhancement. This study demonstrates the utilization of a particular technique for the purpose of enhancement and provides an explanation for the rationale behind employing spatial filtering in the frequency domain.