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Fingerprint Analysis with Marked Point Processes

by Peter G. M. Forbes, Steffen Lauritzen and Jesper Møller
CSGB Research Reports Number 11 (July 2014)

We present a framework for fingerprint matching based on marked point process models. An efficient Monte Carlo algorithm is developed to calculate the marginal likelihood ratio for the hypothesis that two observed prints originate from the same finger against the hypothesis that they originate from different fingers. Our model achieves good performance on an NIST-FBI fingerprint database of 258 matched fingerprint pairs.

Keywords: Bayesian alignment; complex normal distribution; forensic identification; likelihood ratio; marked point processes; von Mises distribution; weight of evidence.

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