EyeCerts

Abstract

In this paper, we propose EyeCerts, a biometric system for the identification of people which achieves offline verification of certified, cryptographically secure documents. An EyeCert is a printed document which certifies the association of content on the document with a biometric feature-a compressed version of a human iris in this work. The system is highly cost-effective since it does not require high complexity, hard-to-replicate printing technologies. Further, the device used to verify an EyeCert is inexpensive, estimated to have approximately the same cost as an off-the-shelf iris-scanning camera. As a central component of the EyeCert system, we present an iris analysis technique that aims to extract and compress the unique features of a given iris with a discrimination criterion using limited storage. The compressed features should be at maximal distance with respect to a reference iris image database. The iris analysis algorithm performs several steps in three main phases: 1) the algorithm detects the human iris by using a new model which is able to compensate for the noise introduced by the surrounding eyelashes and eyelids, 2) it converts the isolated iris using a modified Fourier-Mellin transform into a standard domain where the common radial patterns of the human iris are concisely represented, and 3) it optimally selects, aligns, and near-optimally compresses the most distinctive transform coefficients for each individual user. Using a low-quality imaging system (sub-U.S.$100), a /spl chi//sup 2/ error distribution model, and assuming a fixed false negatives rate of 5%, EyeCert caused false positives at rates better than 10/sup -5/ and as low as 10/sup -30/ for certain users.