IRISRETINA BIOMETRICS

1
IRIS/RETINA BIOMETRICS
2
Retina

• The retina is a thin layer of cells at the back
  of the eyeball of vertebrates.
• It is the part of the eye which converts light
  into nervous signals.
• The retina contains photoreceptor cells (rods and
  cones) which receive the light the resulting
  neural signals then undergo complex processing by
  other neurons of the retina, and are transformed
  into action potentials in retinal ganglion cells
  whose axons form the optic nerve.
• The retina not only detects light, it also plays
  a significant part in visual perception.
• In embryonal development, the retina and the
  optic nerve originate as outgrowths of the brain.
• The unique structure of the blood vessels in the
  retina has been used for biometric identification.

3
(No Transcript)
4
To brain
Rods sense brightness   Cones sense color
The retina, in the back of your eye, has cells
that are sensitive to light. They connect
directly to your brain.
5

• Biometrics which analyze the complex and unique
  characteristics of the eye can be divided into
  two different fields
• iris biometrics - iris is the colored band of
  tissue that surrounds the pupil of the eye.
• retina biometrics - retina is the layer of blood
  vessels at the back of the eye.
• An iris recognition system uses a video camera to
  capture the sample while the software compares
  the resulting data against stored templates.

6
Understanding Iris Recognition

• Iris scan biometrics employs the unique
  characteristics and features of the human iris in
  order to verify the identity of an individual.
• The iris is the area of the eye where the
  pigmented or colored circle, usually brown or
  blue, rings the dark pupil of the eye.

7

• Iris recognition systems use small, high-quality
  cameras to capture a black and white
  high-resolution photograph of the iris.
• This process takes only one to two seconds and
  provides the details of the iris that are mapped,
  recorded and stored for future matching/verificati
  on
• Once the image is captured, the iris elastic
  connective tissuecalled the trabecular
  meshworkis analyzed, processed into an optical
  fingerprint, and translated into a digital
  form.
• Given the stable physical traits of the iris,
  this technology is considered to be one of the
  safest, fastest, and most accurate, noninvasive
  biometric technologies.
• The iris is differentiated by several
  characteristics including ligaments, furrows,
  ridges, crypts, rings, corona, freckles, and a
  sigzag collarette.

8
An Iris Reader
9
Iris
10
(No Transcript)
11
An Iris Recognition Process
12

• The inner edge of the iris is located by an
  iris-scan algorithm which maps the iris distinct
  patterns and characteristics.
• Iris are composed before birth and, except in
  the event of an injury to the eyeball, remain
  unchanged throughout an individuals lifetime.
• Iris patterns are extremely complex, carry an
  astonishing amount of information and have over
  200 unique spots.
• The fact that an individuals right and left eyes
  are different and that patterns are easy to
  capture, establishes iris-scan technology as one
  of the biometrics that is very resistant to false
  matching and fraud.

13

• The false acceptance rate for iris recognition
  systems is 1 in 1.2 million, statistically better
  than the average fingerprint recognition system.
• The real benefit is in the false-rejection rate,
  a measure of authenticated users who are
  rejected.
• Fingerprint scanners have a 3 percent
  false-rejection rate, whereas iris scanning
  systems boast rates at the 0 percent level

14

• Eyeglasses and contact lenses present no problems
  to the quality of the image and the iris-scan
  systems test for a live eye by checking for the
  normal continuous fluctuation in pupil size.

15
Spoofing the Iris

• The iris is extremely difficult trait to spoof,
  yet there have been attempts to do just that
• Attacks on the iris fall into the following
  categories
• Attacking the physical iris
• Using artfacts
• Attacking the communication
• Compromising the teplate
• Attacking the fallback system

16
Advantages of the Iris for Identification

• Highly protected, internal organ of the eye
• Externally visible patterns imaged from a
  distance
• Iris patterns possess a high degree of randomness
  
• Changing pupil size confirms natural physiology
• Limited genetic penetrance of iris patterns
• Patterns apparently stable throughout life
• Encoding and decision-making are tractable

17
Disadvantages of the Iris for Identification

• Small target (1 cm) to acquire from a distance (1
  m)
• Moving target ...within another
• Located behind a curved, wet, reflecting surface
• Obscured by eyelashes, lenses, reflections
• Partially occluded by eyelids, often drooping
• Deforms non-elastically as pupil changes size
• Illumination should not be visible or bright
• Some negative (Orwellian) connotations

18
Retinal Recognition System

• Retina scans are performed by directing a
  low-intensity infrared light to capture the
  unique retina characteristics.
• An area known as the face, situated at the center
  of the retina, is scanned  and the unique pattern
  of the blood vessels is captured.
• Retina recognition technology captures and
  analyzes the patterns of blood vessels on the
  thin nerve on the back of the eyeball that
  processes light entering through the pupil.
  Retinal patterns are highly distinctive traits.
• Every eye has its own totally unique pattern of
  blood vessels even the eyes of identical twins
  are distinct. Although each pattern normally
  remains stable over a persons lifetime, it can
  be affected by disease such as glaucoma,
  diabetes, high blood pressure, and autoimmune
  deficiency syndrome.
• Retina biometrics is considered to be the best
  biometric performers.
• However, despite is accuracy, this technique is
  often thought to be inconvenient and intrusive.
  And so, it is difficult to gain general
  acceptance by the end user.
• Eye and retinal scanner are ineffectual with the
  blind and those who have cataracts.

19

• The fact that the retina is small, internal, and
  difficult to measure makes capturing its image
  more difficult than most biometric technologies.
  An individual must position the eye very close to
  the lens of the retina-scan device, gaze directly
  into the lens, and remain perfectly still while
  focusing on a revolving light while a small
  camera scans the retina through the pupil.
• Any movement can interfere with the process and
  can require restarting. Enrollment can easily
  take more than a minute. The generated template
  is only 96 bytes, one of the smallest of the
  biometric technologies.
• It is one of the most accurate and most reliable
  of the biometric technologies, and it is used for
  access control in government and military
  environments that require very high security,
  such as nuclear weapons and research sites.
• However, the great degree of effort and
  cooperation required of users has made it one of
  the least deployed of all the biometric
  technologies. Newer, faster, better retina
  recognition technologies are being developed.