Stripe pattern matching system

Claim 1

A stripe pattern matching system for verifying matching of a searching stripe pattern to a filed stripe pattern of a plurality of filed stripe patterns beforehand registered; said stripe pattern matching system comprising: a feature extraction means for extracting features of minutiae from the searching stripe pattern; a searching stripe pattern feature memory for storing the features extracted by the feature extraction means; a filed stripe pattern feature memory wherein prepared features of minutiae of the plurality of filed stripe patterns; a pairing examination means for evaluating a correspondence value between a minutia of the searching stripe pattern stored in the searching stripe pattern feature memory and a minutia of the filed stripe pattern prepared in the filed stripe pattern feature memory; a candidate pair list wherein candidate pairs are registered, each of said candidate pairs being a pair of a minutia of the searching stripe pattern and a minutia of the filed stripe pattern which are decided to be similar with each other by the pairing examination means evaluating the correspondence value between them; a coordinate conversion means for calculating rotated coordinates of each of minutiae of the searching stripe pattern by rotating coordinates of said each of minutiae by a rotation angle designated around a designated point of an X-Y plane wherewith the coordinates of said each of minutiae are defined; a rotated stripe pattern feature memory for storing the rotated coordinates of each of minutiae of the searching stripe pattern calculated by the coordinate conversion means to be accessed with each value of the rotation angle; a deviation plane memory for accumulating the correspondence value of each of the candidate pairs satisfying a nomination condition at an address thereof indicated by deviation coordinates of said each of the candidate pairs, the deviation coordinates being differences between the rotated coordinates of a minutia of the searching stripe pattern and coordinates of a minutia of the filed stripe pattern of said each of the candidate pairs; and a control means for, selecting axial candidates among the candidate pairs, obtaining concentrated deviation coordinates giving a largest accumulation of the correspondence value for each of the axial candidates by controlling the deviation plane memory to accumulate the correspondence value of each of the candidate pairs satisfying the nomination condition according to the deviation coordinates obtained from the rotated coordinates calculated by the coordinate conversion means with the rotation angle equivalent to a direction difference between two minutiae of said each of the axial candidates, finding a most appropriate axial candidate which gives a maximum value of the largest accumulation among the axial candidates, determining the direction difference and the concentrated deviation coordinates given by the most appropriate axial candidate as a most appropriate rotation angle and most appropriate shifting coordinates of the searching stripe pattern, respectively, and performing a detailed matching of the searching stripe pattern to the filed stripe pattern making use of the most appropriate rotation angle and the most appropriate shifting coordinates.