Michigan State University has licensed cutting-edge software that detects altered fingerprints to Morpho, part of the Safran group, one of the world’s leading suppliers of identification and detection solutions.
The widespread use of fingerprint recognition systems has led some individuals to disfigure or surgically change their fingerprints to mask their identities. The technology, developed by Anil K. Jain, University Distinguished Professor of computer science and engineering at MSU, can help law enforcement and border control officials detect these altered fingerprints.
“Government agencies worldwide encounter individuals who have gone to extreme measures to alter their fingerprints to avoid being identified by automatic fingerprint recognition systems,” says Jain, an internationally recognized leader in biometrics and pattern recognition research. “The technology can raise a flag so that officials can then perform a secondary inspection to reveal the person’s true identity.”
Jain’s collaborators on the technology include Soweon Yoon, a computer science and engineering doctoral student at MSU, and Jianjiang Feng, a former postdoctoral fellow at MSU and now at Tsinghua University.
Previously, Morpho licensed tattoo-matching software developed by Jain. The technology uses features such as tattoo color, shape, and texture to compute the similarity between images.
“This transfer is the most recent development of our long and fruitful history of scientific collaboration with MSU,” says Jean-Christophe Fondeur, vice president of research and technology director of Morpho’s biometrics department. “We deeply appreciate Professor Jain’s commitment to the advancement of biometrics, and we are very happy to support his research.”
In: MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY
