Fingerprint recognition system using mobile phone camera and apparatus and method for estimating fingerprint characteristics

A fingerprint recognition system using a mobile terminal, and a device and a method for extracting fingerprint feature are provided to extract a fingerprint domain and a ridge direction from a fingerprint image captured through a camera embedded in the mobile terminal, and recognize a fingerprint by comparing the captured fingerprint image with the stored fingerprint image. A fingerprint image obtainer(420) obtains the first fingerprint image from a guard domain set in an image captured through the camera(410). A fingerprint domain extractor(430) extracts the fingerprint domain by estimating color distribution with color information of the first fingerprint image. A ridge direction extractor(440) extracts the ridge direction of each block by dividing the fingerprint domain into a plurality of blocks, and removing outliers with a gradient and an initial direction found from each block. A fingerprint feature extractor(450) obtains the second fingerprint image by using the extracted fingerprint domain and ridge direction, and extracts the fingerprint feature by digitalizing/compressing the second fingerprint image.