Enhancing security of fingerprints through contextual biometric watermarking

• Published in: Forensic science international Vol. 169; no. 2; pp. 188 - 194
• Main Authors: Noore, Afzel, Singh, Richa, Vatsa, Mayank, Houck, Max M
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kidlington Elsevier Ireland Ltd 04-07-2007; Elsevier; Elsevier Limited
• Subjects: Algorithms; Biological and medical sciences; Biometrics; Computer Security; Dermatoglyphics; Face - anatomy & histology; Fingerprint identification; Fingerprinting; Forensic medicine; Forensic sciences; General aspects; Humans; Identification systems; Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted; Investigative techniques, diagnostic techniques (general aspects); Medical sciences; Pathology; Pattern Recognition, Automated; Public health. Hygiene; Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine; Security management; Sensors; Watermarking; Wavelet transform; Wavelet transforms; Fingerprint identification; Wavelet transform; Watermarking; Biometrics; Fingerprint; Forensic science; Wavelet transformation; Legal medicine; Fingerprint method; Forensic aspect; Identification
• ISSN: 0379-0738; 1872-6283
• DOI: 10.1016/j.forsciint.2006.08.019

Abstract This paper presents a novel digital watermarking technique using face and demographic text data as multiple watermarks for verifying the chain of custody and protecting the integrity of a fingerprint image. The watermarks are embedded in selected texture regions of a fingerprint image using discrete wavelet transform. Experimental results show that modifications in these locations are visually imperceptible and maintain the minutiae details. The integrity of the fingerprint image is verified through the high matching scores obtained from an automatic fingerprint identification system. There is also a high degree of visual correlation between the embedded images, and the extracted images from the watermarked fingerprint. The degree of similarity is computed using pixel-based metrics and human visual system metrics. The results also show that the proposed watermarked fingerprint and the extracted images are resilient to common attacks such as compression, filtering, and noise.