Dew Engineering and Development Limited

John Douglas Wong

Laurence Hamid

Michael Andrew Borza

A fingerprint identifying device includes a transparent prism having a fingerprint receiving face, a fingerprint viewing face at an acute angle to the fingerprint receiving face, two opposed parallel faces perpendicular to the fingerprint receiving face and a further light-absorbing face generally opposite to the fingerprint viewing face. A light source in the form of a bank of LEDs is provided for transmitting light into the prism. A light diffuser is provided for light transmitted from the light source such that in operation diffused light is transmitted into the prism through both of the parallel faces and against the fingerprint receiving face to provide substantially uniform illumination of a finger contacting the fingerprint receiving face, a fingerprint image being visible through the fingerprint viewing face. Preferably, the bank of LEDs is disposed at the two opposed parallel faces adjacent to the fingerprint receiving face. It is also preferred if the light source extends above the plane of the fingerprint receiving face to illuminate the edges of a finger from outside of the prism.

Apparatus for identifying fingerprints

A non-minutia method and apparatus for comparing a reference fingerprint image to a candidate fingerprint image are disclosed. During enrollment of a reference image, a unique reference set of data is generated in a reference coordinate system by placing a group of line segments on the reference image. A collection of constraints is used for defining the subspace for each line of the reference group. A similar set of candidate line segments is constructed on the candidate fingerprint image in a candidate coordinate system. A candidate set of data is determined and then compared with the reference set of data using translation and rotation of the coordinate systems. Tolerances of the comparison are also provided for.

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Ottawa, Canada

John Douglas Wong