An Iterative Fingerprint Enhancement Algorithm Based on Accurate Determination of Orientation Flow

We describe an algorithm to enhance and binarize a fingerprint image. The algorithm is based on accurate determination of orientation flow of the ridges of the fingerprint image by computing variance of the neighborhood pixels around a pixel in different directions. We show that an iterative algorithm which captures the mutual interdependence of orientation flow computation, enhancement and binarization gives very good results on poor quality images.