چکیده (انگلیسی):

This study proposes a new method of estimating fingerprint orientation field by utilizing prior knowledge of
fingerprint images and Self-Organizing Map (SOM). The method is based on the assumption that fingerprint
images have some common properties that can be systematized to build prior knowledge. In this method, each
fingerprint image was divided into 16 regions equally and the regions were analyzed separately. To analyze the
regions, they were divided into blocks of 8x8 pixels. Feature vector of each block was constructed by summing
the pixel intensity values in row and column wise. Furthermore, feature vectors of the blocks were concatenated
to form a feature matrix of the region. The matrix was then processed by SOM to find the most dominant
orientation field of the region. The experiment results showed that the chosen feature gave short epochs of SOM
training. In addition, the method was able to estimate the orientation field of most regions. However, the method
could not precisely determine the orientation field if the blocks are dominated by background pixels.