Iris quality assessment and bi-orthogonal wavelet based encoding for recognition

Iris recognition has been demonstrated to be an efficient technology for personal identification. In this work, methods to perform iris encoding using bi-orthogonal wavelets and directional bi-orthogonal filters are proposed and compared. All the iris images are enhanced using the wavelet domain in-band de-noising method. This method is shown to improve the iris segmentation results. A framework to assess the iris image quality based on occlusion, contrast, focus and angular deformation is introduced and used as part of a novel adaptive matching technique based on the assessed iris image quality. Adaptive matching presents improved performance when compared against the Hamming distance method. Four different databases are used to analyze the system performance. The first two databases include popular CASIA and high resolution University of Bath databases. Results obtained for these databases compare with results from the literature, in terms of speed as well as accuracy. The other two databases have challenging off-angle (WVU database) and uncontrolled (Clarkson database) iris images and are used to assess the limits of system performance. Best results are achieved for directional bi-orthogonal filter based encoding technique combined with the adaptive matching method with EER values of 0.07%, 0.15%, 0.81% and 1.29% for the four databases, which reflect highly competent performance and high correlation with the quality of the iris images.     

A novel biorthogonal wavelet network system for off-angle iris recognition

One important category of non-ideal conditions for iris recognition is off-angle iris images. Practically it is very difficult for images to be captured with no offset. It then becomes necessary to account for off angle information in order to maintain robust performance. A biorthogonal wavelet based iris recognition system, previously designed at our lab, is modified and demonstrated to perform off-angle iris recognition. Biorthogonal wavelet network (BWN) are developed and trained for each class. The non-ideal factors are adjusted by repositioning the BWN. To test, along with the real data, synthetic iris images are generated by using affine and geometric transforms of 0°, 10° and 20^° experimentally collected images. The tests were carried out on the experimentally collected off-angle data and synthetically generated data for angles from 0° to 60^° with a resolution of 5^°. This approach is shown to have less constraints than a transformation based iris recognition approach. Iris images off-angle by up to 42^° for synthetic data and up to 45^° for experimental data are successfully recognized.     

使用人眼几何特征的视线追踪方法

目的 视线追踪是人机交互的辅助系统,针对传统的虹膜定位方法误判率高且耗时较长的问题,本文提出了一种基于人眼几何特征的视线追踪方法,以提高在2维环境下视线追踪的准确率。方法 首先通过人脸定位算法定位人脸位置,使用人脸特征点检测的特征点定位眼角点位置,通过眼角点计算出人眼的位置。直接使用虹膜中心定位算法的耗时较长,为了使虹膜中心定位的速度加快,先利用虹膜图片建立虹膜模板,然后利用虹膜模板检测出虹膜区域的位置,通过虹膜中心精定位算法定位虹膜中心的位置,最后提取出眼角点、虹膜中心点等信息,对点中包含的角度信息、距离信息进行提取,组合成眼动向量特征。使用神经网络模型进行分类,建立注视点映射关系,实现视线的追踪。通过图像的预处理对图像进行增强,之后提取到了相对的虹膜中心。提取到需要的特征点,建立相对稳定的几何特征代表眼动特征。结果 在普通的实验光照环境中,头部姿态固定的情况下,识别率最高达到98.9%,平均识别率达到95.74%。而当头部姿态在限制区域内发生变化时,仍能保持较高的识别率,平均识别率达到了90%以上。通过实验分析发现,在头部变化的限制区域内,本文方法具有良好的鲁棒性。结论 本文提出使用模板匹配与虹膜精定位相结合的方法来快速定位虹膜中心,利用神经网络来对视线落点进行映射,计算视线落点区域,实验证明本文方法具有较高的精度。     

On Generation and Analysis of Synthetic Iris Images

The popularity of iris biometric has grown considerably over the past two to three years. It has resulted in the development of a large number of new iris encoding and processing algorithms. Since there are no publicly available large-scale and even medium-size data bases, neither of the newly designed algorithms has undergone extensive testing. The designers claim exclusively high recognition performance when the algorithms are tested on a small amount of data. In a large-scale setting, systems are yet to be tested. Since the issues of security and privacy slow down the speed of collecting and publishing iris data, an optional solution to the problem of algorithm testing is to synthetically generate a large scale data base of iris images. In this work, we describe a model-based method to generate iris images and evaluate the performance of synthetic irises by using a traditional Gabor filter-based iris recognition system. A comprehensive comparison of synthetic and real data is performed at three levels of processing: 1) image level, 2) texture level, and 3) decision level. A sensitivity analysis is performed to conclude on the importance of various parameters involved in generating iris images     

Iris image segmentation based on approximate methods with subsequent refinements

A system of methods for the detection and segmentation of iris in frontal eye images is presented. Input data are images used in modern iris recognition systems. Coordinates of outer and inner iris borders and the mask of the visible iris region or a decision that the image does not contain the iris of acceptable quality are obtained at the output. The system starts processing with an approximate detection of the eye center followed by an approximate detection of the outer and inner iris borders. If one of these borders is not detected, a further attempt is made to locate it using a different algorithm. Ultimately, the precise borders of the iris are determined at the last steps using specifically designed methods. The system is tested on public iris image databases as well as using the international IREX NIST test.     

Improving Iris Recognition Performance Using Segmentation, Quality Enhancement, Match Score Fusion, and Indexing

This paper proposes algorithms for iris segmentation, quality enhancement, match score fusion, and indexing to improve both the accuracy and the speed of iris recognition. A curve evolution approach is proposed to effectively segment a nonideal iris image using the modified Mumford–Shah functional. Different enhancement algorithms are concurrently applied on the segmented iris image to produce multiple enhanced versions of the iris image. A support-vector-machine-based learning algorithm selects locally enhanced regions from each globally enhanced image and combines these good-quality regions to create a single high-quality iris image. Two distinct features are extracted from the high-quality iris image. The global textural feature is extracted using the 1-D log polar Gabor transform, and the local topological feature is extracted using Euler numbers. An intelligent fusion algorithm combines the textural and topological matching scores to further improve the iris recognition performance and reduce the false rejection rate, whereas an indexing algorithm enables fast and accurate iris identification. The verification and identification performance of the proposed algorithms is validated and compared with other algorithms using the CASIA Version 3, ICE 2005, and UBIRIS iris databases.      

Iris image segmentation and sub-optimal images

Iris recognition is well developed and works well for optimal or near-optimal iris images. Dealing with sub-optimal images remains a challenge. Resolution, wavelength, occlusion and gaze are among the most important factors for sub-optimal images. In this paper, we explore the sensitivity of matching to these factors through analysis and numerical simulation, with particular emphasis on the segmentation portion of the processing chain.     

基于D-LDA与最近特征分类法的眼虹膜识别系统

以3个主要处理阶段来实现一个高识别率的虹膜识别系统。撷取人眼图像进而分离出虹膜图像,再利用图像处理予以改善,使得虹膜图像更适于后续的识别。接着建立虹膜的特征向量,在虹膜图像展开的过程中,解决了虹膜图像旋转不变性的问题,然后利用直接线性判别分析（D-LDA）的方式进行特征抽取,使得所产生出来的特征向量拥有最大类别间距离与最小类别内距离的特性。最后,探讨多种最近特征分类法与其识别效果,并将上述方法设计完成一套眼虹膜识别系统。实验结果显示,在样本特征向量数较少的情况下识别率有96．47％,如果在每个类别中增加样本特征向量的数量,则系统的识别率可以达到98．50％。     

Iris recognition using shape-guided approach and game theory

Most state-of-the-art iris recognition algorithms claim to perform with a very high recognition accuracy in a strictly controlled environment. However, their recognition accuracies significantly decrease when the acquired images are affected by different noise factors including motion blur, camera diffusion, head movement, gaze direction, camera angle, reflections, contrast, luminosity, eyelid and eyelash occlusions, and problems due to contraction and dilation. The novelty of this research effort is that we propose to apply a variational model to localize the iris region belonging to given shape space using active contour method, a geometric shape prior, and the Mumford–Shah functional. This variational model is robust against noise, poor localization and weak iris/sclera boundaries. Furthermore, we apply the Modified Contribution-Selection Algorithm (MCSA) for iris feature ranking based on the Multi-Perturbation Shapley Analysis (MSA), a framework which relies on cooperative game theory to estimate the effectiveness of the features iteratively and select them accordingly, using either forward selection or backward elimination approaches. The verification and identification performance of the proposed scheme is validated using the ICE 2005, the UBIRIS Version 1, the CASIA Version 3 Interval, and WVU Nonideal datasets.     

Phase Correlation Based Iris Image Registration Model

Iris recognition is one of the most reliable personal identification methods. In iris recognition systems, image registration is an important component. Accurately registering iris images leads to higher recognition rate for an iris recognition system. This paper proposes a phase correlation based method for iris image registration with sub-pixel accuracy. Compared with existing methods, it is insensitive to image intensity and can compensate to a certain extent the non-linear iris deformation caused by pupil movement. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm has an encouraging performance.     

实时虹膜识别系统中的图像预评估检测

在采集虹膜图像样本时,会由于各种原因而出现不同类型的坏样本。由于现有的图像质量评估方法需要在虹膜定位或者粗定位之后,根据虹膜的清晰度或分辨率来进行判定,因此只能检测出特定类型的坏样本。为了能对各种类型坏样本进行检测,在分析坏样本产生原因和类型的基础上,提出了一种实时预评估网络的检测方法,即在定位或者粗定位处理之前,预先对缓存中的图像进行评估,再根据预评估检测的结果来决定是重新采集,还是进入后续的处理。其目的是,①节省现有的图像评估在定位处理上花费的时间和降低采集失败率,以提高识别系统的友好性;②减少因为坏样本的输入而导致的定位出错,以避免引起误识别的可能;③提高识别率的同时降低识别系统的注册失败率。实验结果表明,这种方法不仅可以检测出多种类型的坏样本,且检测错误率低,同时具有较高的评估速度,可以满足实时虹膜识别系统的要求。     

Effect of Severe Image Compression on Iris Recognition Performance

We investigate three schemes for severe compression of iris images in order to assess what their impact would be on recognition performance of the algorithms deployed today for identifying people by this biometric feature. Currently, standard iris images are 600 times larger than the IrisCode templates computed from them for database storage and search; but it is administratively desired that iris data should be stored, transmitted, and embedded in media in the form of images rather than as templates computed with proprietary algorithms. To reconcile that goal with its implications for bandwidth and storage, we present schemes that combine region-of-interest isolation with JPEG and JPEG2000 compression at severe levels, and we test them using a publicly available database of iris images. We show that it is possible to compress iris images to as little as 2000 bytes with minimal impact on recognition performance. Only some 2% to 3% of the bits in the IrisCode templates are changed by such severe image compression, and we calculate the entropy per code bit introduced by each compression scheme. Error tradeoff curve metrics document very good recognition performance despite this reduction in data size by a net factor of 150, approaching a convergence of image data size and template size.     

DCT-based iris recognition

This paper presents a novel iris coding method based on differences of discrete cosine transform (DCT) coefficients of overlapped angular patches from normalized iris images. The feature extraction capabilities of the DCT are optimized on the two largest publicly available iris image data sets, 2,156 images of 308 eyes from the CASIA database and 2,955 images of 150 eyes from the Bath database. On this data, we achieve 100 percent correct recognition rate (CRR) and perfect receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curves with no registered false accepts or rejects. Individual feature bit and patch position parameters are optimized for matching through a product-of-sum approach to Hamming distance calculation. For verification, a variable threshold is applied to the distance metric and the false acceptance rate (FAR) and false rejection rate (FRR) are recorded. A new worst-case metric is proposed for predicting practical system performance in the absence of matching failures, and the worst case theoretical equal error rate (EER) is predicted to be as low as 2.59 times 10^-1 available data sets     

渐进式虹膜图像质量评估模型

虹膜图像质量评估目前尚无统一评估标准,导致虹膜识别拒识率和误识率较高。针对该问题,提出一种虹膜图像质量评估模型。根据虹膜图像中各干扰因素的不同特点,在先验知识基础上采用区域化、加权的方法,渐近式地实施像素级质量评估,依据像素级评估结果实施图像级质量评估。实验结果表明,像素级虹膜图像质量评估中的虹膜图像干扰项识别率和模糊识别率较高,图像级虹膜图像质量评估与人工评估结果相一致。     

基于二维正交滤波的虹膜识别算法

提出一种针对灰度虹膜图像进行虹膜特征提取及匹配的方法,其利用四元数二维正交Log Gabor小波提取虹膜图像的纹理特征,以滤波后图像的解析信号作为虹膜的特征编码.该方法可以同时表征虹膜纹理多方向上的特征,更加全面地描述了虹膜纹理的特征空间.特征匹配采用类似汉明距的方式,同时以虹膜图像中眼睑、睫毛以及光斑的分布为匹配模版来减少它们的干扰.大量实验的结果表明该方法具有非常优越的识别性能.     

A knowledge-based approach to the iris segmentation problem

This paper describes a knowledge-based approach to the problem of locating and segmenting the iris in images showing close-up human eyes. This approach is inspired in the expert system’s paradigm but, due the specific processing problems associated with image analysis, uses direct encoding of the “decision rules”, instead of a classic, formalized, knowledge base. The algorithm involves a succession of phases that deal with image pre-processing, pupil location, iris location, combination of pupil and iris, eyelids detection, and filtering of reflections. The development was iterative, based on successive improvements tested over a set of training images. The results that were achieved indicate that this global approach can be useful to solve image analysis problems over which human “experts” have better performance than the present computer-based solutions.     

基于曲面匹配的虹膜识别方法

提出了一种基于曲面匹配的虹膜识别方法，直接利用2幅虹膜图像对应的像素点灰度进行匹配。该方法主要包括虹膜图像尺寸和灰度范围的归一化、匹配区域的选择、匹配相似度阈值的估计以及对人眼旋转的自动校正。该文选择在眼毛、眼睑通常遮挡不到的一个较小的区域作为虹膜匹配区域，使该方法具有较宽的适应能力。没有特征提取过程，使得该方法具有计算量小的特点。图像之间的匹配过程使得伪造和窃取虹膜编码变得困难。实验表明该方法具有较高的识别率。     

基于Adaboost算法的虹膜合格状态检测

虹膜图像的采集是业界公认的难点,也是制约虹膜识别广泛应用的主要原因。怎样快速方便地采集到一幅清晰度足够并且有丰富纹理的高质量虹膜图像,对虹膜识别的速度和准确度都起着至关重要的作用。提出了一种基于Adaboost的虹膜图像合格状态检测和定位算法,能够快速有效地一次性检测出虹膜图像采集中的各种不合格图像,例如图像中没有完整眼睛、眼睛睁开程度不够、闭眼、斜视、运动模糊等。大量实验结果表明,该算法具有较好的检测准确率,对各种干扰情况有较强的鲁棒性,并且检测速度快,能够达到实时要求。对于检测合格的图像,还可以大致定位出虹膜在图像中的位置,为后续的虹膜定位节省时间。