This paper describes the implementation of an iris recognition algorithm based
on hardware-software co-design. The system architecture consists of a general-purpose 32-
bit microprocessor and several slave coprocessors that accelerate the most intensive
calculations. The whole iris recognition algorithm has been implemented on a low-cost
Spartan 3 FPGA, achieving significant reduction in execution time when compared to a
conventional software-based application. Experimental results show that with a clock
speed of 40 MHz, an IrisCode is obtained in less than 523 ms from an image of 640x480
pixels, which is just 20% of the total time needed by a software solution running on the
same microprocessor embedded in the architecture.Peer ReviewedPreprin
