Fingerprint authentication system and method

A method for authenticating a fingerprint on a smart card, the method comprising:

• at a fingerprint sensor of the smart care, capturing a fingerprint;
• at an application processor of the smart card, a transformation unit transforms a first format of the captured fingerprint into a second format of the captured fingerprint, wherein the first format defines coordinates of minutia positions and the second format defines relative positions of minutiae;
• at a secure element of the smart card, an authentication unit receives data of the captured fingerprint in the second format from the application processor and compares the relative positions with reference values that are stored in the secure element;
• wherein the authentication unit is further configured to maintain an error counter indicative of the extent to which the relative positions do not correspond to the stored reference values, and to determine that captured fingerprint is not authentic if the error counter exceeds a predefined threshold.