Short Bio

Laurenz Ruzicka (male) is a PhD candidate at the competence unit Sensing and Vision Solutions at AIT. His research interests lie at the intersection of machine learning, computer vision, and biometrics. Before Laurenz joined AIT in 2021, he was doing his Master’s in Technical Physics at TU Wien. His diploma thesis had the title: ”Spatio-Temporal Pattern Matching for 3D Data with an application for automate diagnosis of iRBD”. There, he focused on combining established algorithms for analyzing spatio-temporal 3D data with a novel natural language approach in the medical context.

PhD Project - Algorithms for Contactless Fingerprint Recognition

Supervised by Clemens Heitzinger and Bernhard Kohn

Laurenz’s research focuses on developing novel algorithms to address the key challenges in contactless fingerprint recognition, aiming to improve its accuracy, robustness, privacy, and interoperability with traditional contact-based systems. His work tackles issues arising from contactless acquisition, such as variations in pose, scale, illumination, and background complexity. He develops and evaluates deep learning approaches for crucial preprocessing steps including fingertip segmentation (e.g., FingerUNeSt++, TipSegNet) and core point localization, alongside empirical analysis of core centrality. The research also introduces methods for pose correction and unwarping to mitigate geometric distortions, adapts quality assessment metrics (MCLFIQ) for contactless data, and proposes techniques for detecting mosaicking artifacts. Furthermore, the thesis explores the manufacturing and performance of synthetic 3D fingers for standardized testing and investigates privacy-preserving matching techniques using Multi-Party Computation (MPC).

Publications and Conferences

• Cesari, M., Ruzicka, L., Högl, B., Ibrahim, A., Holzknecht, E., Heidbreder, A., Bergmann, M., Brandauer, E., Garn, H., Kohn, B., & Stefani, A. (2023). Improved automatic identification of isolated rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder with a 3d time-of-flight camera. European Journal
• Kohn, B., Ruzicka, L., Hogl, B., Ibrahim, A., Garn, H., Heidbreder, A., Bergmann, M., Brandauer, E., Holzknecht, E., Stefani, A., & Cesari, M. (2022). TeaSpam: A novel method of TEmporal and SPAtial movement encoding during sleep. Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. Annual International Conference, 2022, 4222–4225. https://doi.org/10.1109/EMBC48229.2022.9871521
• Mader, J., Wohner, F., Ruzicka, L., & Loruenser, T. (2024). Towards real-time privacy-preserving minutiae matching. Proceedings of the 23rd Workshop on Privacy in the Electronic Society, 98–108. https://doi.org/10.1145/3689943.3695049
• Priesnitz, J., Weißenfeld, A., Ruzicka, L., Rathgeb, C., Strobl, B., Lessmann, R., & Busch, C. (2023, December 12). MCLFIQ: Mobile contactless fingerprint image quality. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2304.14123
• Ruzicka, L., Kohn, B., & Heitzinger, C. (2025). TipSegNet: Fingertip segmentation in contactless fingerprint imaging. Sensors, 25 (6), 1824. https://doi.org/10.3390/s25061824
• Ruzicka, L., Söllinger, D., Kohn, B., Heitzinger, C., Uhl, A., & Strobl, B. (2023). Improving sensor interoperability between contactless and contact-based fingerprints using pose correction and unwarping (V. Conti, Ed.) [Publisher:Hindawi]. IET Biometrics, 2023, 7519499. https://doi.org/10.1049/2023/7519499
• Ruzicka, L., Strobl, B., Bergmann, S., Nolden, G., Michalsky, T., Domscheit, C., Priesnitz, J., Blümel, F., Kohn, B., & Heitzinger, C. (2024). Toward synthetic physical fingerprint targets [Number: 9 Publisher: Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute]. Sensors, 24 (9), 2847. https://doi.org/10.3390/s24092847
• Ruzicka, L., Strobl, B., Kohn, B., & Heitzinger, C. (2024). Centrality of the fingerprint core location. Proceedings of the 17th International Joint Conference on Biomedical Engineering Systems and Technologies BIOSTEC, Volume 1: Biosignals, Biodevices, Bioinformatics, Bioimaging, 713–720. https://doi.org/10.5220/0012309300003657
• Watzenböck, C.,Wallerberger, M., Ruzicka, L.,Worm, P., Held, K., & Kauch, A. (2022). Photoexcitations in the hubbard model: Generalized loschmidt amplitude analysis of impact ionization in small clusters [Publisher:American Physical Society]. Physical Review B, 106 (8), 085135. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.106.085135