Abstract: Exemplary embodiments of method and apparatus for processing the images of fingerprints can be provided. For example, aligned images can be subjected to a tessellation process, whereas each image can be partitioned into a number of regions. Within each region at least one parameter associated with the ridges can be measured and stored. Such exemplary parameter can include, e.g., the prevailing ridge orientation, the average ridge separation and the phase of the ridges. The data can be projected and stored in a multidimensional coordinate system, whereas the representations of any two data can be separated by an amount corresponding to the dissimilarity of these data.

Abstract: Exemplary embodiments of method and apparatus for processing the images of fingerprints can be provided. For example, aligned images can be subjected to a tessellation process, whereas each image can be partitioned into a number of regions. Within each region at least one parameter associated with the ridges can be measured and stored. Such exemplary parameter can include, e.g., the prevailing ridge orientation, the average ridge separation and the phase of the ridges. The data can be projected and stored in a multidimensional coordinate system, whereas the representations of any two data can be separated by an amount corresponding to the dissimilarity of these data.

Abstract: A method of modelling an object (313), comprising capturing images of the object from a plurality of spaced apart cameras (310), creating a three-dimensional model (31) of the object from the images and determining from the model and the images a lighting model (36) describing how the object is lit. Typically, the method comprises the step of estimating the appearance of the object if it were evenly lit; and minimising the entropy in the estimated appearance of the object. Similarly, also disclosed is a method of determining how a two-dimensional image is lit, comprising capturing the image (21), modelling the lighting of the image and removing the effects of the lighting, in which the method comprises calculating the entropy of the image with the effects of the lighting removed and selecting the model such that the entropy is minimised.