Investigation of iris recognition in the visible spectrum

mong the biometric systems that have been developed so far, iris recognition systems have emerged as being one of the most reliable. In iris recognition, most of the research was conducted on operation under near infrared illumination. For unconstrained scenarios of iris recognition systems, the iris images are captured under visible light spectrum and therefore incorporate various types of imperfections. In this thesis the merits of fusing information from various sources for improving the state of the art accuracies of colour iris recognition systems is evaluated. An investigation of how fundamentally different fusion strategies can increase the degree of choice available in achieving certain performance criteria is conducted. Initially, simple fusion mechanisms are employed to increase the accuracy of an iris recognition system and then more complex fusion architectures are elaborated to further enhance the biometric system’s accuracy. In particular, the design process of the iris recognition system with reduced constraints is carried out using three different fusion approaches: multi-algorithmic, texture and colour fusion and multiple classifier systems. In the first approach, one novel iris feature extraction methodology is proposed and a multi-algorithmic iris recognition system using score fusion, composed of 3 individual systems, is benchmarked. In the texture and colour fusion approach, the advantages of fusing information from the iris texture with data extracted from the eye colour are illustrated. Finally, the multiple classifier systems approach investigates how the robustness and practicability of an iris recognition system operating on visible spectrum images can be enhanced by training individual classifiers on different iris features. Besides the various fusion techniques explored, an iris segmentation algorithm is proposed and a methodology for finding which colour channels from a colour space reveal the most discriminant information from the iris texture is introduced. The contributions presented in this thesis indicate that iris recognition systems that operate on visible spectrum images can be designed to operate with an accuracy required by a particular application scenario. Also, the iris recognition systems developed in the present study are suitable for mobile and embedded implementations

Iris feature extraction: a survey

Biometric as a technology has been proved to be a reliable means of enforcing constraint in a security sensitiveenvironment. Among the biometric technologies, iris recognition system is highly accurate and reliable becauseof their stable characteristics throughout lifetime. Iris recognition is one of the biometric identification thatemploys pattern recognition technology with the use of high resolution camera. Iris recognition consist of manysections among which feature extraction is an important stage. Extraction of iris features is very important andmust be successfully carried out before iris signature is stored as a template. This paper gives a comprehensivereview of different fundamental iris feature extraction methods, and some other methods available in literatures.It also gives a summarised form of performance accuracy of available algorithms. This establishes a platform onwhich future research on iris feature extraction algorithm(s) as a component of iris recognition system can bebased.Keywords: biometric authentication, false acceptance rate (FAR), false rejection rate (FRR), feature extraction,iris recognition system

Infrared face recognition: a comprehensive review of methodologies and databases

Automatic face recognition is an area with immense practical potential which includes a wide range of commercial and law enforcement applications. Hence it is unsurprising that it continues to be one of the most active research areas of computer vision. Even after over three decades of intense research, the state-of-the-art in face recognition continues to improve, benefitting from advances in a range of different research fields such as image processing, pattern recognition, computer graphics, and physiology. Systems based on visible spectrum images, the most researched face recognition modality, have reached a significant level of maturity with some practical success. However, they continue to face challenges in the presence of illumination, pose and expression changes, as well as facial disguises, all of which can significantly decrease recognition accuracy. Amongst various approaches which have been proposed in an attempt to overcome these limitations, the use of infrared (IR) imaging has emerged as a particularly promising research direction. This paper presents a comprehensive and timely review of the literature on this subject. Our key contributions are: (i) a summary of the inherent properties of infrared imaging which makes this modality promising in the context of face recognition, (ii) a systematic review of the most influential approaches, with a focus on emerging common trends as well as key differences between alternative methodologies, (iii) a description of the main databases of infrared facial images available to the researcher, and lastly (iv) a discussion of the most promising avenues for future research.Comment: Pattern Recognition, 2014. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1306.160

Iterative Information Granulation for Novelty Detection in Complex Datasets

Recognition memory in a number of mammals is usually utilised to identify novel objects that violate model predictions. In humans in particular, the recognition of novel objects is foremost associated to their ability to group objects that are highly compatible/similar. Granular computing not only mimics the human cognition to draw objects together but also mimics the ability to capture associated properties by similarity, proximity or functionality. In this paper, an iterative information granulation approach is presented, for the problem of novelty detection in complex data. Two granular compatibility measures are used, based on principles of Granular Computing, namely the multidimensional distance between the granules, as well as the granular density and volume. A two-stage iterative information granulation is proposed in this work. In the first stage, a predefined number of granular detectors are constructed. The granular detectors capture the relationships (rules) between the input-output data and then use this information in a second granulation stage in order to discriminate new samples as novel. The proposed iterative information granulation approach for novelty detection is then applied to three different benchmark problems in pattern recognition demonstrating very good performance

The Design of a Multimedia-Forensic Analysis Tool (M-FAT)

Digital forensics has become a fundamental requirement for law enforcement due to the growing volume of cyber and computer-assisted crime. Whilst existing commercial tools have traditionally focused upon string-based analyses (e.g., regular expressions, keywords), less effort has been placed towards the development of multimedia-based analyses. Within the research community, more focus has been attributed to the analysis of multimedia content; they tend to focus upon highly specialised specific scenarios such as tattoo identification, number plate recognition, suspect face recognition and manual annotation of images. Given the everincreasing volume of multimedia content, it is essential that a holistic Multimedia-Forensic Analysis Tool (M-FAT) is developed to extract, index, analyse the recovered images and provide an investigator with an environment with which to ask more abstract and cognitively challenging questions of the data. This paper proposes such a system, focusing upon a combination of object and facial recognition to provide a robust system. This system will enable investigators to perform a variety of forensic analyses that aid in reducing the time, effort and cognitive load being placed on the investigator to identify relevant evidence

Unobtrusive and pervasive video-based eye-gaze tracking

Eye-gaze tracking has long been considered a desktop technology that finds its use inside the traditional office setting, where the operating conditions may be controlled. Nonetheless, recent advancements in mobile technology and a growing interest in capturing natural human behaviour have motivated an emerging interest in tracking eye movements within unconstrained real-life conditions, referred to as pervasive eye-gaze tracking. This critical review focuses on emerging passive and unobtrusive video-based eye-gaze tracking methods in recent literature, with the aim to identify different research avenues that are being followed in response to the challenges of pervasive eye-gaze tracking. Different eye-gaze tracking approaches are discussed in order to bring out their strengths and weaknesses, and to identify any limitations, within the context of pervasive eye-gaze tracking, that have yet to be considered by the computer vision community.peer-reviewe

What does semantic tiling of the cortex tell us about semantics?

Recent use of voxel-wise modeling in cognitive neuroscience suggests that semantic maps tile the cortex. Although this impressive research establishes distributed cortical areas active during the conceptual processing that underlies semantics, it tells us little about the nature of this processing. While mapping concepts between Marr's computational and implementation levels to support neural encoding and decoding, this approach ignores Marr's algorithmic level, central for understanding the mechanisms that implement cognition, in general, and conceptual processing, in particular. Following decades of research in cognitive science and neuroscience, what do we know so far about the representation and processing mechanisms that implement conceptual abilities? Most basically, much is known about the mechanisms associated with: (1) features and frame representations, (2) grounded, abstract, and linguistic representations, (3) knowledge-based inference, (4) concept composition, and (5) conceptual flexibility. Rather than explaining these fundamental representation and processing mechanisms, semantic tiles simply provide a trace of their activity over a relatively short time period within a specific learning context. Establishing the mechanisms that implement conceptual processing in the brain will require more than mapping it to cortical (and sub-cortical) activity, with process models from cognitive science likely to play central roles in specifying the intervening mechanisms. More generally, neuroscience will not achieve its basic goals until it establishes algorithmic-level mechanisms that contribute essential explanations to how the brain works, going beyond simply establishing the brain areas that respond to various task conditions