A structural approach to fingerprint classification

A new structural approach to the fingerprint classification problem is presented. The fingerprint directional image is segmented in regions by minimizing the variance of the element directions within the regions. From the segmentation of the directional image a relational graph compactly summarising the macro-structure of the fingerprint is derived. Inexact graph matching techniques can be adopted to compare the obtained graph with the model graphs in order to classify the fingerprint, according to a given classification scheme.