Matching data objects by matching derived fingerprints

摘要

The invention relates to methods and apparatus for matching a query data object with a candidate data object by esetracting and comparing fingerprints of said data objects. In an embodiment of the invention apparatus comprising a fingerprint extraction module (110), a fingerprint matching module (210), a statistical module (120) and an identification module is provided. The fingerprint extraction module (110) receives an information signal forming part of a query object and constructs a query fingerprint. The fingerprint matching module (210) compares the query fingerprint to candidates stored in a database (215) to find at least on potentially best matching candidate. Meanwhile, the statistical module determines a statistical model of the query fingerprint so as to, for instance, determine the statistical distribution of certain information inside the query fingerprint. The threshold determiner (120) is arranged, on the basis of the distribution of the query fingerprint to derive an adaptive threshold distance within which the query fingerprint and a potentially best matching candidate may be declared similar by the identification module (130). By setting a threshold which may depend on statistical data derived from the query and/or candidate fingerprint, an improved false acceptance rate F.A.R. may be achieved.