Advances in Iris Recognition: Perspectives and Opportunities of Research in Biometric Algorithms

Abstract

The last six years witnessed important advances in applying iris based biometric systems for military and civil security purposes. The fundamental aspect of this progress is the development of biometric algorithms able to produce high confidence personal identification without human interaction. The majority of such biometric algorithms use iris video as a better representation of special properties and features of the iris texture thus optimizing its recognition process. The goal of this paper is to present a general overview of iris recognition methods with particular emphasis on the algorithms used in recent applications for distant iris recognition as well as iris recognition in uncontrolled environments. Though special attention is given to the latest tendencies, traditional iris recognition methods are also described. Finally, some future research opportunities are discussed.