Towards secondary fingerprint classification

Abstract

This manuscript proposes a move towards the secondary level of fingerprint classification. This is done in order to further penetrate a fingerprint template database, and further reduce it to smaller partitions for efficient execution of the database search procedure. This is done through taking advantage of the extensibility of a structural fingerprint classifier when used on slapped, as opposed to rolled, fingerprints. The said classifier first orders a fingerprint into one of four primary fingerprint classes and, thereafter, into one of eight secondary fingerprint classes. Evaluated on the CSIR-Wits Fingerprint Database (CWFD), the primary classification module registers an accuracy figure of 80.4%, and the secondary classification module registers an accuracy figure of 76.8%. This small difference between the two figures is indicative of the validity of the proposed secondary classification module.