Collaborative Fingerprint Authentication by Smart Card and a Trusted Host

Y.S. Moon, H.C. Ho, K.L. Ng, S.F. Wan, S.T. Wong
Department of Computer Science and Engineering
The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Shatin, N.T.,
Hong Kong.
Email: ysmoon.hcho.k1ng2.sfwan.stwong@cse.cuhk.edu.hk

which attempts to improve the time complexity and

Abstract
Smart card is an important component in e-commerce
security. In a previous CCECE paper, we introduced the
idea for verification of the ownership of a smart card
using fingerprint. An owner's fingerprint is registered
into a smart card. When using smart card on a
computer, the card software will match the user's
fingerprint with that stored in the card. This paper
describes the continuation work of this research. Our
goal is to extend the role ofthe smart card to become an
active authenticator for participation in fingerprint
authentication process. The heart ofproblem lies on the
limited computing power of the card's processor. This
paper reports the detailed descriptions of the design,
implementation and experiments.
reduce the data leakage possibility in our method.
2 Fingerprint Authentication Basic and its
Application in Our Project
In our work, fingerprint comparison is chosen as the
biometrics authentication tool for its maturity in terms
of algorithm availability and hardware feasibility. The
novel technique for fingerprint identification [1],[2],[3]
has been well developed in the field of image
processing. Generally speaking, when we want to
compare two fingerprint images, it is needless to
accomplish this using a pixel-by-pixel methodology. On
the contrary, we can simply compare some pre-extra(:ted
features. In this regard, we have adopted the minutiae
method [1],[2],[3],[4],[5] in our work.

Minutiae refer to the ridge ends and ridge branches of a

1 Introduction fingerprint image. After some ad-hoc minutiae
Smart card[6], which is a credit card sized plastic card,
extraction process [1],[2],[3],[4],[5], we obtain a set of
embedded with a special type of hardwired logic or a
minutiae which is unique for every person[12]. This
microprocessor to holtl critical information securely, is a
process transforms the fingerprint-matching problem
good choice of light-weighted hardware assisted
into a more general point-matching problem. Several
cryptographic devices for protection at the client side,
well-known point-pattem-matching algorithms have
when conducting some kinds of online activities, such
been proposal in the late80's[1l].
as e-commerce[9] on the intemet.
We conducted our work using smart card equipped with
In recent years, there is an increasing trend of using
a 5 MHz Java processor[7] with no floating-point
biometrics information such as eye retina, fingerprint,
arithmetic support. In our previous work, after we had
etc for user authentication in order to strengthen the
added a fixed-point arithmetic support to the smart card,
security measures of different electronic/embedded
the card processor required about 7-10 seconds to
systems, including smart card systems. However, most
accomplish the point matching process. One way to cut
of these systems have a common insecure characteristic
down this figur~iis to let the computer hosting the smart
that the biometrics authentication process is solely
card reader tqcarry out a more substantial share of the
accomplished out of the smart card processor. For
computational work. Unfortunately, this implies that
example, in fingerprint-based card systems, the card
more fingerprint data must be transferred out of the
needs to insecurely release the critical fingerprint master
smart card so that data leakage becomes a problem. In
template information into a host computer with an
the following part, we will discuss our continued e1fort
extemal fingerprint reader to perform the fingerprint
in this direction to enable the matching process be
matching.
completed in real time and secure manner.
In a previous CCECE paper[8], we introduced the idea
for verification of the ownership of a smart card using 3 Abstracted .M,:odel of Fingerprint
fingerprint. One or more fingerprints of the owners are Matching
registered into smart card. When the owner uses his In our recent work, we focus on enhancing the
smart card on a computer, the card software will attempt performance of minutiae matching process on the smart
to match the user's fingerprint with that stored in the' card. We assume that the process of minutiae extraction
card. In this way, the authentication of smart card can be is done by a fingerprint capture device equipped with a
established. This paper describes the continuation work DSP chip. Before discussing our new algorithm design,

0-7803-5957-7/00/$10.00©2000 IEEE
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let us review the whole process fingerprint from the sc'anner, we extract the minutiae points from a
authentication in this section briefly. captured image using the host computer, and stl:>re the
points into a template file, called live template. Data of
3.1 Fingerprint Authentication Process the live template file is sent to the smart card, which
The process of fingerprint authentication can be divided computes translation and rotation difference between
into 3 main steps. They are: the live template and the master template. By using
these two values, the live template can be transformed
3.1.1 Image Pre-Processing Enhancement in a state ready for point-to-point matching with the
This refers to the refinement of the original fingerprint master template. Finally, we obtain a percentag{: match
image against image degradation in the fingerprint result.
reader.

3.1.2 Minutiae Extraction

This refers to fingerprint feature extraction. The
following algorithm is mainly based on the techniques
used in [4].

The 4 main steps are listed below:

Step 1 Conversion from original image to Binary image
Apply a low pass filter to smooth the high frequency
regions of the print and apply threshold into each-
segment of the image.

Step 2 Binary image to one pixel wide skeleton

conversion
Using spatial domain method and thinning rules,
consider each pixel with its neighbors, generate a one-
pixel-wide skeleton image.
Step 3 Skeleton refinement and transformation
In this stage, the skeleton obtained is transformed into a
state from which valid Minutiae information can be
extracted.
Step 4 Enrollment
Select some of the Minutiae and store them into a
template file. The position, type and orientation of each
Minutia, are stored as a master template inside the smart
card.
Host computer Smart card
Figure 1 Original system architecture
4.2 Different New Approaches
4.2.1 The Cartesian Approach
In our new design, we perform some pre-match
computation is conducted in the host computer in order
to reduce the workload of the smart card. When
generating the master template file, we compute the
average position (MP) and orientation (MO) of the
points in the master template and attach these two
values to the master template in the smart card.
MP is a 2D co-ordinate (MP_X, MP_Y) and,

3.1.3 Authenticate with the Live Scan Image

After we have captured the user fingerprint image from
the fingerprint reader, we'can apply the above
mentioned image processing techniques to transform the
image into necessary minutiae points and compare them
with the master template. Due to the difference between
displacement and orientati'on between the live scanned
image and the master image, it is necessary to rotate and
translate the live scanned image before doing a point-to-
point matching procedure. After this process, we can
compute the percentage match result by using a point-
to-point type matching procedure. Subsequently, a
decision can be made by comparing the percentage
match value and a pre-defined threshold value[4],[5].
4 Modified Approaches
4.1 Original Design
In our original system, which we called the "Hard
Way", after we have obtained the. live scanned image
where Xi is the x co-ordinate of ith minutiae, Y j is the y
co-ordinate of the ith minutiae, OJ is the minutiae
orientation of the ith minutiae in the master template
and N is the total number of minutiae points i.n master
template.
The calculation ofLP and LO is similar.
During authentication, after we have obtained the live
template file, we will compute the average position (LP)
and orientation (LO) of the live template. Then, MP and
MO are sent to the host computer from the smart card.
Points of live template will be transformed in the host

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computer using the difference between (MP-LP) and the master template. Thus, the security of the master
(MO-LO). The transformed live template data are sent template information is less likely to be compromised.
to the smart card inside which a point-to-point matching
will take place. . 4.3 Polar Co-ordinate Approach
In our latest work, we represent the minutiae using polar
By doing so, we are able to separate the whole co-ordinates. Based on the average position (LP), eVI~ry
authentication procedure into two parts. One is minutiae point can be represented by distance(r) from
processed on smart card, and another one is processed LO and angle (e) form the x-axis.
on the host computer. In, this way, the smart card
processor no longer performs rotation and translation (x,y)
operation. Some arithmetic operations can be eliminated
including sine and cosine operation. As a result, the
smart card only performs the point-to-point matching.
LO
To conclude that' two points are identical, we need to
construct a bounding box as limit of the error tolerarice Figure 3 Polar co-ordinate representation
due to fuzzy scan of the fingerprint image. Moreover,
the locations and orientations of the points might change . With this, we can do the transformation and matching
after some rotation and translation operations are steps inside the smart card with improved processing
applied due to computation errors. On the other hand, time, because translation computation is no longer
since we use a 200x200 pixels resolution in representing required. Instead we only do a so-called "rotation"
the fingerprint image, integer representation is sufficient operation inside the smart card. The rotation is only a
for our 2D coordinate system. subtraction of the angular difference (A) from each
minutiae polar angle. In this way, a significant amount
Live template file
withLP&LO of processing time used to compute the sine and cosine
MP&MO functions in the rotation step inside smart card in our old
~
. system design is saved up.
~~
Master template
file in Smart card Comparing to the Cartesian form of point-to-point
Compute the
difference of
matching algorithm, the polar form of point-to-point
(MP.LP)& matching algorithm keeps the same level of security and
. (MO.LO) comparable time complexity. The complete system
, architecture of the polar form of point matching
Translation& algorithm is shown in Figure! 4.
Compute the % , .. rotation
match and compare
with the pre- Master template in Polar
Transform the live
defined threshold form attach with MO
template
value (Average Orientation)
Live template in pOlm]_
form attach with LO
~ Matching result (Average Orientation)
...

Smart card Host cOmputer

Figure 2 New system architecture

4.2.2 Problem on Fingerprint Data Leakage

Our modified version of the fingerprint recognition
system further divides the matching routines in such a
way that the smart card processor concentrates on the
core matching process while the other pre-processing
and transformational steps are done in an outside host.
One may worry about the security of the process due to
increase in the information going outside from the card.
However, it is not a matter of security concern because Smart card Host computer
the smart card only exports the average position and the
mean orientation angle so that it is difficult for any Figure 4 Polar form point matching system architecture
outsider to gain further information of the minutiae in

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4.3.1 Point-to-Point Matching (Polar Form)
In the Cartesian point-matching algorithm, two points
match if the minutia from live image fall into the
bounding box of master image. In the Polar Form
algorithm, we have a different way for computing the
error bounds.
Firstly, we define the size of the bounding box:
Figure 5 Initial guess
For two points, if I rl - r21 < 10 and I 1 - 2 I < 60
degree, then they are considered to be the preliminarily
matched. Further computation is necessary to verify
their closeness.
If two points fulfil the above requirement, the arc length
(r2 * ( 1 - . 2)) will be calculated. If the arc length <
I 0, these two points will be regarded as matched. In
some cases, more one point from the live template may
match to one point in the master. Using the
approximation formula: area = arc * (r2 - rl), we will
compute the areas of the error bounding rectangles for
all of the matching points in the live template, The point
associated with the smallest rectangle will be regarded
as best matched point.
Figure 6 Best match approach
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4.4 Assumption
When we conduct the experiment of the above
approaches, we have assumed that the numbers of
minutiae in the master and the live scan template are
approximately the same. Significant difference between
the number of minutiae extracted from the live scan and
that from master template can lead to the inaccuracy in
the comparing the orientation angle and the minutiae
average position. Our assumption is valid since the
increase in the difference in the minutia number implies
the increase in the number of noisy points detected,
signalling us to reject the live scan template and re-
acquire the candidate's fingerprint again. Here, we
should ensure that the minutiae stored in the master
template are not noisy points, else false rejection rate
can increase. This can be achieved by scanning more
than once during master template registration.
5 Time Complexity Analysis
In this section, we would like to investigate the
performance issues of our new design of fingerprint
computation in the smart card system.
Our original system which uses the smart card processor
to do the transformation process and the point-to-point
matching process, takes about 10 seconds to finish the
authentication process. About 40% of time was spent on
transferring fingerprint template data to the smart card
and another 60% spent on the actual authentication
computation. The new system takes only 3-4 seconds to
complete the complete authentication process. 50% of
time is used to transfer data. Two separate data transfer
sections actually take place. The first one refers to the
data transfer from the smart card to the host computer.
The data are simply two average values of the master
template. The second one transfers the whole live
fingerprint template from the host computer to the smart
card. Another 50% of time are used to process the
authentication computation which is a simple point-to-
point matching procedure.
Refer to the point-to-point matching pseudo-code in our
previous paper[8], we can see that the time complexity
of the point-to-point-matching algorithm is 0 (n2).
Assuming the number of Minutiae Points exist in both
the master template and the live scan template are 20
respectively, the worse case of the number' of
comparisons is 20 x 20 = 400.
6 Experiment Results
In our experiment, we want to examine the consistency
of accuracy and time complexity of the proposed point-
pattern matching algorithms. We have generated 10
pairs of fingerprint template as sample test data.
. 6.1 Consistent Accuracy
We run our sample data using the cartesian co-ordinate
approach and the polar co-ordinate approach in PC
platform. We found that the matching results of the
sample data are consistent with each other. The result is References
shown below:
[1] D. Maio, D. Maltoni, S. Rizzi, "An efficient
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Card System with Biometrics Capability"
Remark: there are about 20 mmutIae In both master and Proceedings of the 1999 IEEE Canadian
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Though the above result shows the consistency of the [9] Y.S. Moon, H.C. Ho, "Secure Transport Protocol
two approaches is satisfied, the accuracy greatly for E-Commerce - SET versus SSL", in
depends on the detennination of the average position Multimedia Infonnation Systems in Practice,
(centroid) which in tum depends on different between Springer Verlag Press, pp. 389-397, Dec. 1998,
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1892.
Noted that the above average time does not include the
transfer time of data to smart card. The average data
transfer time is about 2.5 seconds. Therefore, the total
time for a complete authentication is 3-4 seconds which
is an obvious improvement compare with our last year
result.

'7 Conclusion and Future Work

In contrast to traditional approach on fingerprint
matching, like string matching[5], our approach is
solely based on 2D geometry, which is more suitable to
be run by smart card with limited processing power.
However, the corresponding error tolerance ability will
be weakened. The next phase of this project comes to
requirement analysis of the .image pre-processing and'
feature extraction against noisy minutiae with respect to
smart card based matching algorithm.

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