System and method for processing fingerprint/palmprint image

A fingerprint/palmprint image processing method comprising a step of reading a fingerprint/palmprint image, an extracting step of dividing the fingerprint/palmprint image into a plurality of local regions and of extracting a plurality of ridge line candidate images which represents ridge lines, for each of the local regions, a highly reliable region determining step of determining, from the ridge line candidate images thus extracted, a ridge line candidate image having a high likelihood of ridge line, and a local region including the ridge line candidate image having the high likelihood of ridge line, as a highly reliable region, a step of selecting a ridge line image which can be estimated to represent a ridge line, from the ridge line candidate images extracted by the extracting step, for each of the local regions other than the highly reliable region, a discriminating step of discriminating, for each ridge line image thus selected, whether or not the ridge line image thus selected is valid as an image representing a ridge line, and a step of generating a whole image on the basis of the ridge line image in the highly reliable region and the ridge line images which were discriminated by the discriminating step to be valid as the image representing the ridge line.

A program for causing a computer to execute a procedure of dividing a fingerprint/palmprint image into a plurality of local regions and of extracting a plurality of ridge line candidate images which represents ridge lines, for each of the local regions, a highly reliable region determining procedure of determining, from the ridge line candidate images thus extracted, a ridge line candidate image having a high likelihood of ridge line, and a local region including the ridge line candidate image having the high likelihood of ridge line, as a highly reliable region, a procedure of selecting a ridge line image which can be estimated to represent a ridge line, from the ridge line candidate images extracted by the extracting procedure, for each of the local regions other than the highly reliable region, a discriminating procedure of discriminating, for each ridge line image thus selected, whether or not the ridge line image thus selected is valid as an image representing a ridge line, and a procedure of generating a whole image on the basis of the ridge line image in the highly reliable region and the ridge line images which were discriminated by the discriminating procedure to be valid as the image representing the ridge line.