Iris Recognition Technology Gerald 0. Witlams Abstract-—~ triScan Inc. has for the past (wo years, been developing an dentification/vetification system capable of positively identifying and vertying the identity of Individuals without physical contact or a person in the loop. Personal identifeation Historically been based on what a possesses (a card); knows (a Personal Ientiication Number); or is (an_ inherent physiological or behavioral - characteristic). Facial features (both infra-red signatures and geometry), fingerprints, hand geometry, vein Patterns, retinal patterns, voice patterns, and signature dynamics have all been explored as biometric identifiers with varying levels. of sucease, All but voice and facial recognition quire contact or have been characterized by some as invasive or intrusive, Many have Suffered from high cost and unsatisfactory error rates. A new technology, using the unique patterns of the human ile, shows promise of overcoming previous shortcomings and providing positive identification of an individual Without contact or invasion, at extremely high confidence level, ‘The videosbasod systom locates the eye and iris; evaluates the degree of occlusion by eyelid and spectral reflection; determines. the quality of Jmage focus; and determines the center and ‘boundary ofthe pupil and the limbus (outer edge ‘ofthe iris) for processing. The iris is zoned, and the features therein measured and encoded into 256 byte (2048 bit) IrisCode for enrollment or Identiication. The presented biometric is compared to an. extensive database for Identification, or to a referenced irisCode for verfication. "Computations and decisions are accomplished at extremly high rates of speod, Tesulting in processing times of lose than two seconds. “The process is based on the unique nature and tho extreme richness of the human ie, Tho: muiiple contraction furrows, collagenous fibers, crypts, coronas, ‘serpentine vasculature, freckles, rift, and pite produce. @ omduplicable organ with more than 400 degrees of treedom, or measurable variables ‘The IriScan process typically uses about 200 of these to create a code which can be compared to fan entre databace in milliseconds, producing a Positive identification with “imposter odds" as high as 1 In 10". The process. dotines a "Hamming Distance" or measure of dliference between the presented biometric and the feference irisCodes. The Hamming sistance: determines under which portion of the frequ Gitributions “(developed from over 6 millon comparisons of Iie data) the would-be entrant falls when the irs ls presented. This location also determines where in the “Imposter” 0700395376 10884.00 6196 EEE frequency distribution the individual fale and thus. provides quantifiable Imposter odds on which to base an entry decision. Calculated ‘error curves for Type | (False Reject) and Typo (alse Accopt) errors overlap ata mathomatically determined point which provides a "Crossover Error Rate" where the probablity of Type | and ‘Type Il errors are equal. In comparison to the best Crossover Error Rates obtainable by current biometri technology of about 3%, the IriScan Fate of 0.00076% represents a quantum leap orward for postive personal identification. Recent formal testing for the Defense Nuclear Agency (ONA) has confirmed the laboratory te results. Beta testing in an operational field fenvironment has demonstrated the practically fof such an identification dovice in a real world Scenario. Together, thie recent testing has Substantiated tho operational viability ofpersonal |donttiers baeed on ie identification technology. Commercial producte were first available in October 1998. 1.0 INTRODUCTION 1.4 Background Personal identification has historically been based on what a person possesses (a latter of Introduction perhaps), knows (a secret passwor), fr is (personal recognition). in today's secunty Industry, possession has become an encoded cara knowledge equates to knowing one's Personal Identiication "Number (PIN), and personal recognition has given way t0 physiological and behavioral characteris known ‘ae. biometic, Various human foatures have been used as the basis for biometric mansuremant. Thee include fingerptints, paimprints, hand goomety, vein patterns, facial characteristics, and capilary pat Inthe retina. Additionally, bohavioralcharactoristics such as signature dynamics, voice pattern, and keystroke dynamics have been used for identification of verflction. Many of these require Contact or are perceived as Invasive or intrusive (thors require person to make a final judgement fo are cost, oF suffer from unsatisfactory error rates, IiScan nc. has forthe past two years, been developing an automated identiication/eriicaton {system capablect posively identiying and verying without physiol Contact or a parson in the loop. ‘Tho. iis dentiieation technology, patented by IniScan, shows promise of mecting ths challenge without suttering many ofthe inadequacies exhibited by the technologies mentioned above. In addition to developing a commercialy viable idetiicaton system for industria application, IiScan completeddovelonment of a brasstoard mod for use by the Department of Detonse (000). This paper attempts to report the progress of development of is identication technology and inckides data from both the DNA and commercial application program ‘mentioned above as well as IiScan's independent research, This paper is intended for securty Pracitioners. who! are knowledgeable, but not technically or scientifoaly oriented. Appendox A High Confidence Personal identiicaton By Rad Video “Anaisis of Ie Texure, by Dr John DDaugman, i Itended for the more tochnioally of scientiialy oriented readers. 1.2 Caveats 1.21 Ins idonticaton technology and the [Scan process are not associated with, of In any way ‘similar ‘0 retina (capilary) pattern recognition. The iis isthe colorul donut-shaped organ surrounding the pupil The retina is the hemispherical organ behind the comea, lens, is, and pupil The IiSoan process eaplures a video Image (takes a video ictus) of the extemal ie whi the retinal soan process scans the fovea or innermost surface ofthe intemal orga, the retina, 41.22 The intial production run for the: fist ‘commercial product (The IiScan System 2000EAQ), intended for Access Control application is complete land units are avaiable, Because of thei recent Inroduction, however, systems ave not been formally tested by an independent testing agoncy. Systems have been formally tested by InScan in @ laboratory environment in accordance with a test an spproved by the Defense Nuclear Agency (NA) as part ofthe brassboard project mentioned ‘atl. Adkdtonaly, systems havo been Beta tested in operational environments ata unversty medical ‘school, @_national laboratory, and major ‘corrections facil 1.28 Much ofthe data reported in this paper has been obtained from laboratory models, & baseboard modal, and pre-production prototypes ‘operated by trained personnel whose orientation is te optimize system performance. As a result, the data may of may not reflect the resus thal wil be ‘obtained in an uncontroled environment subject to the fobles and vagaries of the general population 1.24 The developmental and pre;production Prototype idontfeation systems have to-date ‘operated in. the identfication (tecogniion) mode conly. The veriation mode (where card or PIN inputs ae usedto preselect the appropriate enrolled fle) has been testod for the DNA, and future prototypes and production modele may cortain this feature as ar optional tom, 1.9 Dafictions 1.91 Identiication: The process of presenting a biometric feature without selecting a single i inthe dtabase fo compared to. Requires a comparison ‘of the presented biometric with each fle in the database to. determine idently. Colloquially desorbed as “one-on-many’ 1.8.2 Verficstion: The process of presenting a fle number along with a biometric feature so that the system compares the presontod biometric wth only fone fo in the database (‘one-on-one 1.89 Hamming Distance (HO): A quantitative measure of diferance between two. IrisCodes ‘expressed as a two-decimal number. Itcan also be expressed as a percentage. For example, an HD of (08 indicates that two IrisCodes are &% diferent 2.0 BASIS OF THE TECHNOLOGY 2.4 Features of the ls ‘The human iris i ich in features which can be used to quantitatively and postively distinguish fone trom another. The iis contains multiple collagenous fives, contraction furows, coronas, crypts, color, serpentine vasculature, striations Ireokles, rts, and pits, Further, measuring these features for height, with, angle of deflection, and location provides other quartiiable parameters Useful to the Kietiicaion process. In al, there are ‘ver 400 Degress of Freedom (OOF) on which to base a statistical analysis and comparison. In practice, when all onjunct features ave excluded, approximately 200 DOF are useable inthe Scan comparison process. This is three to fourtimes the frumber available to conventional tingerptint identification systems 2.2 Uniqueness ofthe is The Irie I unique because of the chaotic ‘morphogenesis ofthat organ. To quote Or. John Daugman (Append A), "An advantage the iis shares with fingerprints Is the chaotic morphogenesis of is minutiae, Theis texture has Chaotic dimension because Re details depend on intial conditions in embryonic genetic expression: Yet. the limtation of paral genetic penetrance (beyond expression of form, function, color and ‘general textural quality), ensures thet even identical ‘wins have uncorelated ie minutiae. Thus the Uniqueness of every is, including the pair Postessed by one. indlidual, paralele the Uniqueness of every fingerprint regardless. of whether there is a common genome” Given this the statistical probabil that two lrses would be Identical by random chance Is calculated st ‘approximately 1 in 10 29 Stablty ofthe iis Notwithstanding ts delicate nature, the sis protected behind eyetd, comes, aqueous humor, and frequently eyestasses or contact lenses wich have negigible effect on te identification process) ‘Anonmel isis usualy kibrieated, not contaminated ‘with foreign material, and instinctively, one of the most carefully protected organs In one's body. ‘Adaltionaly, the features of thei, thir placement, size, shape, and orientation remain stable and fod ‘rom about one year of ege throughout fe 24 Natural protection fom ation The iis has physiologiea! characteristics which can be exploited to insure that reproductions fof a human iis cannot be Used to fool the system One of these Is known as pupilary unrest, the autonomic reeponees of the eye to ight variationsthat are go minute and rapid that they fll below our level of consoousness, Study the pupils of someone under normal’ ambiont "lighting Conditions, and you wil note that they are almost ‘constantly in mation, opening and closing within & ‘small range without the introduction of any detectable varying ght source. A. simple comparison of pupll size between multiple video frames can detect pupllary unrest as acorfimation athe *humanness’ ofthe is being presented. An fdational ive eye" tests the response ofthe pupil to light pulses datectod by the aye either directly inta the aye being presented (primary rflex) or the fee aye (oonsensusl reflex). Finally, there ie & complex interaction of reflections and rafactions which cours inthe human eye. producing ‘measurable “Purkinf images" which distinguish a Ihe eye froma non-human representation of an ay. 3.0 PROCESSING 9.4 Imsge acquisition ‘The optical platform of the is identification system acquires muiipie images of the presented ins through @ simple lens, @ monochrome COD camera. and a frame grabbing board. A low: level@20 wat, operating at 7 watts) quartz halogen umipator, operating trom .1 to 1-2 microns at 3200" provides ilursntion approximately 14° rom the lens (9" from the front of the optical platform), fand a liquid crystal cisplay with beam splitter provides feedback through the lens to ald the user Inalignmant. There isa diamond shaped reflection in the pupil which shrinks to a dot as the user approaches the optimum focal point which acts a= ‘8 secondary aid t0 user alignment and Image. facquistion. 82 tis detintion ‘The image which best meets the focus and otal laity requirements of tho system is then ‘analzedto locate the limbus (he outer boundary of the iis, whore t meets the white sclera ofthe eye = see Figure $1), the nominal boundary where the Creu pup meets the iri, and the center of the pup. The precise location ofthe eroular is hes ow been defined and further processing can occur 39 Zones of analysis The system dotinestes eight zones of analysis on the iis. (Figure 1) using @ Statie/dymamic system. Through software, the static portion of the. system truncates what would btharwiea be circular zones much fia a bull2ye target, The zones are truncated at top and bottom te avoid analyzing special reflection fom the sb. clock luminator, and te ignorethe occlusion from the upper eyo. ‘The dynamic nature ofthe system. ‘s such that t automatically adjusts tho wiath of the zones in realtime to maximize the amount of ine fanalyzed glen varying rtios of pupil to is sizes Truncation of the zonee has itle effect on the analysis process. Even the reduced-size zones have mere than enough feature variants toute all 256 bis. In actual practice, excelent enrlimenis land subsequent Kentfcations are obiainod with only 40% oF less of the ins avallable for analysis, Features are located based on e polar coordinate system 9.4 Image ansiysie ‘The features ofthe i's are then analyzed and dligtized Into a 256 byte (2048 bi) lrisCode Figure 5:1, upper lft comer) which is then stored in the database for future comparison. When an irs is presented at poral, the same process occurs, and the rosutant IneCode is compared to every fle In ‘the datebase In the idertfication or “recognition™ ‘ode, or fo a selactad fein the veication mode, 9.5. Hamming distance caleulation When a would-be entrant presents an iis at 42 pottal, the lrisCode oblained in the manner described above is compared tothe IisCode(s) in the database to calcula a Hamming Ditans (HD) ‘25a quantitative measure of how differant the presented InsCode is trom each isCode. Each of 2088 pairs of bis are compared (Figure 62). Bi#t ‘rom tho presented IrsCode is compared to bit #1 fom the reference IisCoda, bit #2. from the Presented IrsCode is compared to bit #2 trom the Felerence IreCode, and so on. i two bits are ake (two "1's, ortwo 0's) tho system assigns a value of zero to that pair comparison, if two bits are ‘ifort, the system assigns a value of one to thet pelr comparison, After al pars are compared, the assigned values are summed, and divided by the {otal numberof pair comparisons ruling in a two dligt quantitative expression of how diferant the two lisCodes are (sometimes the full 2048 pais are not compared because the systom detects and fxchides spectral refections that were not presant during ervolmend. ‘36 entiation ot rection Many thousand ICode comparisons of both known impostore and known authentes have statsticaly defined the Frequency Distributions (Probabilty Dente) in Figure 8° iis clear that the mean imposter Hamming Distance is near 05, hich is what one would expect in a truly random relationship tlipsing a coin several lion times and noting the occurrence of heads versus tal), The ‘mean vahie for authertics onthe other hand is lese than’ 0.10 (or 10%). 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