A Camera-Based Approach to Prevent Fingerprint Hacking

Fingerprints is nowadays the most largely used biometric technology for personal identification. With emerging ubiquity of high-definition digital cameras, the risk of fingerprint hacking from photo and video pictures increase. This article discusses the fingerprint hacking problem and presents a new camera-based anti-hacking approach. The technique automatically scans a captured picture for fingerprint images and if found modifies the images to protect the fingerprint information. An experimental evaluation of software prototype shows that it provides robust detection of fingerprints with less than 1sec. delay for 1600x1200 pixel images and almost invisible impact on image quality (less than 1% increase in PSNR).