Image thinning is one of time consuming processes in image processing since it often needs several scanning iterations of the whole image data. Research efforts have been made on this issue to try to reduce scanning iterations for thinning algorithms. Image template thinning algorithms are parallel ones that have been widely applied in image processing with better performance than serial thinning methods. However

for some commonly used template thinning algorithms there are some shortages such as still needing quite a few iterations

incomplete thinning somewhere

etc. In order to overcome these shortages

an improved image template thinning algorithm is proposed in the paper based on a group of modified templates. The new algorithm can significantly reduce the scanning iterations and speed up the thinning process while giving the same or better (complete) thinning result. The new algorithm has been applied to image thinning of fingerprint images and the validity of the algorithm is confirmed by the experiment results in the paper.