Encryption and multiplexing of fingerprints for enhanced security

A novel cryptographic technique is proposed for enhanced security of fingerprint information. An orthogonal coding scheme is developed to encrypt the given fingerprint image. Multiple encrypted fingerprint images are then mixed together by using a multiplexing process. The proposed encryption and multiplexing technique not only enhances the security of confidential fingerprint information by making the information inaccessible to any intruder having a random code, but also improves the system resource utilization by reducing the storage and/or transmission bandwidth requirement. The salient features of the technique is that any authorized user can retrieve the corresponding fingerprint information from the complex encrypted and multiplexed image by a single decryption process with the authentic key. The proposed cryptographic technique involves a simple architecture by not requiring any mathematical transformation. Performance of the technique is investigated through computer simulation employing real-life fingerprint images.