I.J. Image, Graphics and Signal Processing, 2013, 2, 51-59 Published Online February 2013 in MECS (http://www.mecs-press.org/) DOI: 10.5815/ijigsp.2013.02.08 Copyright © 2013 MECS I.J. Image, Graphics and Signal Processing, 2013, 2, 51-59 Minutiae Distances and Orientation Fields Based Thumbprint Identification of Identical Twins Kamta Nath Mishra* Department of CS & E, Birla Institute of Technology Mesra, Ranchi (Allahabad Campus), INDIA Email: mishrakn@yahoo.com P. C. Srivastava Department of CS & E, Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra Ranchi (Allahabad Campus), INDIA Email: prakash_bit123@rediffmail.com Anupam Agrawal Department of Information Technology, Indian Institute of Information Technology Allahabad, INDIA Email: anupam69@gmail.com Vivek Tripathi Headstrong India Pvt. Ltd., Bangaluru, INDIA Email: tripathivivek@live.com Rishu Garg Department of CS & E, Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra Ranchi (Allahabad Campus), INDIA Email: rishug18@gmail.com Abstract — The twins are classified into two categories namely fraternal and identical twins. Fraternal twins differ in face structures and DNA sequences but, identical twins have the same face structure and share same DNA sequence. Therefore, it is difficult to identify identical twins on the basis of their faces and DNA sequences. In this research paper, we have introduced a new approach for identifying identical twins on the basis of minutiae coordinates, orientation angles, and minutiae distances of their thumbprint images. We tested the proposed method on thumbprint images of an identical twin pair generated by using Incept H3 T&A Terminal and fifty pairs of identical twins of FVC04, and FVC06 datasets. We have found that the proposed approach is superior, and robust in comparison to existing techniques in terms of accuracy, efficiency, and storage space. Index Terms — Fingerprint Patterns, Fraternal Twins, Identical Twins, Minutiae Distances, Minutiae Orientation Fields I. INTRODUCTION Biometric systems are automated methods of verifying a person on the basis of his physiological and behavioral characteristics. Physiological features based biometrics include iris image, finger prints, thumb print, palm print, face, finger veins, hand geometry, DNA sequence, and palates. Behavioral features based biometrics include gaits (style of walking, and style of talking) signature and voice. Physiological and behavioral characteristics can be used to identify a person if these characteristics satisfy universality, distinctiveness, permanence, and collectability conditions [12]. The twins are classified into two categories namely fraternal twins (monozygotic twins) and identical twins (zygotic twins). Fraternal twins are produced from two eggs and these eggs are fertilized separately by two different sperms. Therefore, fraternal twins differ in face structure, DNA sequence and voice [6]. It is easy to identify fraternal twins on the basis of face structure, DNA sequence, and voice. Identical twins are fertilized from the same egg. Therefore, identical twins have the same DNA sequence and face structure. Identical twins identification is always a challenging task. Identical twins differ in thumbprints (TP), hand geometry (HG), iris images (II), finger veins (FV), palatal structure (PS), finger prints (FP) and gait signatures (GS). Therefore, either one of these biometrics or their combinations can be used for identical twins identification [14][16]. Mathematically, an Identical Twin Identification System (ITIS) can be defined as follow: