Modified distance transformation for image enhancement in NIR imaging of finger vein system

Abstract

Most of the current image processing methods used in the near-infrared imaging of finger vascular system concentrate on the extraction of internal structures (veins). In this paper, we propose a novel approach which allows to enhance both internal and external features of a finger. The method is based on the Distance Transformation and allows for selective extraction of physiological structures from an observed finger. We evaluate the impact of its parameters on the effectiveness of the already established processing pipeline used for biometric identification. The new method was compared with five state-of-the-art approaches to features extraction (position-gray-profile-curve—PGPGC, maximum curvature points in image profiles—MC, Niblack image adaptive thresholding—NAT, repeated dark line tracking—RDLT, and wide line detector—WD) on the GustoDB database of images obtained in a wide range of NIR wavelengths (730–950 nm). The results indicate a clear superiority of the proposed approach over the remaining alternatives. The method managed to reach over 90% identification accuracy for all analyzed datasets.