# US 5,351,304 A · Fingerprint data registration method

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- Number: US 5,351,304 A
- Document ID: US5351304A
- Status: Granted
- Kind: A
- Application number: 08/171,966
- Filed: 1993-12-22
- Granted: 1994-09-27
- Earliest claimed: 1991-05-07
- Assignees: Yozan Inc.
- Inventors: Makoto Yamamoto
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US5351304A

## CPC

- G07C 9/37: using biometric data, e.g. fingerprints, iris scans or voice recognition
- G06V 40/1347: {Preprocessing; Feature extraction}
- G07C: TIME OR ATTENDANCE REGISTERS; REGISTERING OR INDICATING THE WORKING OF MACHINES; GENERATING RANDOM NUMBERS; VOTING OR LOTTERY APPARATUS; ARRANGEMENTS, SYSTEMS OR APPARATUS FOR CHECKING NOT PROVIDED FOR ELSEWHERE
- G06V: IMAGE OR VIDEO RECOGNITION OR UNDERSTANDING

## Abstract

A fingerprint data registering method which can clearly show the characteristics of minutiae by storing the information of an original image. The method includes thinning a fingerprint image into an array of pixels, converting a pixel in each array into a multi-bit binary value corresponding to the pattern of the array, and storing the multi-bit binary value as the pixel.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A fingerprint data registering method comprising the steps of:
thinning a fingerprint image;
for each pixel in said thinned image, determining:
(1) a value representing the minutia data for the pattern formed by both said pixel and the pixels which are adjacent to said pixel; and
(2) a value representing the specific pixel arrangement of said adjacent pixels; and
storing said minutia data value and said pixel arrangement value.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

A fingerprint data registering method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said minutia data value and said pixel arrangement value are stored as a multi-bit binary value which includes 7 bits of data.

### Claim 3 (depends on 2)

A fingerprint data registering method as claimed in claim 2, wherein said multi-bit binary value includes 8 bits of data.

### Claim 4 (depends on 1)

A fingerprint data registering method as claimed in claim 1, wherein for each pixel in said thinned image a value indicating whether or not said pixel is a configuration pixel is also stored.