a Information Technology collage, Babylon University
b Department of computer science, Babylon University
Abstract
In this paper, we introduce a new method to hide information (such as face image, voice, signature…) in ridges of a fingerprint image. The place where the message is hidden depends on features extracted from the image (like core, delta, ending and bifurcation). The proposed system consists of two stages; the First stage is for hiding a message which means extracting features from a fingerprint image to determine useless regions, while the second stage is for extracting a message from a fingerprint image. Hiding information in a fingerprint image must never alter the positions and numbers of important regions or pixels .Hiding information helps the automated fingerprint identification system in making the individual identification decision more reliable. In this paper a new technique in the way of hiding information is used depending on the nature of the cover image by determining the edges of an object and hiding the message between these edges.
Keywords: Fingerprint, segmentation, Poincare index, Minutiae detect, hide information.
1-Introduction
A fingerprint image has been used for personal identification for many decades because:
1- It is highly reliable.
2-A fingerprint remains constant during people’s life [2].
3-A fingerprint image has a unique property in that the fingerprints of the identical twins are different and so are the prints of each finger of the same person.
A fingerprint is a pattern of parallel ridges and valleys, the ridges (also called ridge lines) are dark whereas the valleys are bright as illustrated in figure (1).
Figure (1) ridges and valleys pattern
Features in a fingerprint image are divided into two levels:
• The local level for minutiae detects (ending and bifurcation). Minutiae are local discontinuities in the fingerprint pattern (as shown in figure (2)) which are used in a fingerprint matching stage, and the similarity between two fingerprints is determined by comparing the two sets of minutiae points .
Dear visitor,
For downloading the full version of the research/article click on the pdf icon above.