An iris image scanned by a sensor

     of  new technology

    POC is used to verify the iris pattern

    for individual authentication.

Prototype of iris verification system

Prof. T. Aoki and his research group achieved developing a new technique of automatic iris verification with Yamatake Corporation.  The iris recognition is one of the most important biometrics authentication techniques, which identify individuals by scanning biological characteristics such as faces, fingerprints and palm prints.

The research group applied the technique of Phase-Only Correlation (POC) --- a high-accuracy image matching technique using Fourier phase information --- to iris verification.  Prof. Aoki and his colleagues already demonstrated that the POC algorithm exhibits an efficient performance in fingerprint recognition.  This time, the group shows that the same technique is highly effective also for iris recognition.  Performance evaluation using the CASIA iris image database clearly demonstrated that the new iris recognition algorithm exhibits world’s highest level of recognition performance.

Conventional method of iris recognition is to transform iris images to digital codes through feature extraction, and to compare the digital codes of iris images for individual authentication.  A major problem of the conventional method is that the recognition performance is significantly influenced by many parameters in image feature extraction.  The newly developed method, on the other hand, compares iris images directly without feature extraction, and its identification performance is stable and is hardly affected by conditions of capturing iris images.  The new technique will be widely applicable to access control applications for housings on a daily basis.

These technical achievements will be announced at the IEEE International Conference on Image Processing (ICIP2005) being held at Geneva, Italy, from September 11 to 14, 2005.  At ICIP2005, Prof. Aoki will also introduce new methods for fingerprint recognition and 3D human face recognition, both for biometrics authentication applications.  All these results are collaborative developments between Tohoku University and Yamatake Corporation.

Ahead of an official announcement at ICIP2005, an outline of the technique was announced at the seminar for the 100th Anniversary of Tohoku University on August 5, 2005.