Wednesday 21st November 2001 (6 pm)
ABSTRACT
Iris recognition provides real-time, high confidence identification of persons by mathematical analysis of
the random patterns that are visible within the iris of an eye from some distance. Because the iris is a protected,
internal organ whose random texture is epigenetic and stable over life, it can serve as a living password or passport
that
one need not remember but is always in one's possession.
Recognition decisions are made with confidence levels high enough to support rapid exhaustive searches through national-sized databases. The principle that underlies these algorithms is the failure of an efficient test of statistical independence involving nearly 250 degrees-of-freedom. The combinatorial complexity of iris patterns enables operation always in one-to-many "identification" mode, which is more demanding and useful than just one-to-one "verification" mode in which each person must always first assert an identity that is then merely verified. The benefit is PIN-less, cardless, hands-free recognition, with database search speeds above 100,000 persons per second. Data will be presented in this talk from 2.3 million IrisCode comparisons, together with the results of tests conducted by independent testing organizations.
Besides applications in security and banking, iris recognition can play a role in a wide range of settings in which persons' identities must be established or confirmed, by large-scale rapid database search, without relying upon cards, keys, documents, secrets, passwords or PINs. The recognition algorithm described in this talk has recently been installed for passenger screening at Schiphol, Frankfurt, and Charlotte Airports, and from December will be deployed in all four terminals at Heathrow.
The Evening Lectures are free to both members and non-members of SGES.
For further information contact: Prof. Boris Mirkin, Department of Computer Science, Birkbeck College mirkin@dcs.bbk.ac.uk.