460 JOURNAL OF EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES IN WEB INTELLIGENCE, VOL. 6, NO.

4, NOVEMBER 2014

An Iris Localization Method for Non-ideal Eye

Images
Navjot Kaur
University Institute of Engineering and Technology
Computer Science Department, Panjab University Chandigarh, India
Email: navjotkaur2611@gmail.com

Mamta Juneja
University Institute of Engineering and Technology
Computer Science Department, Panjab University Chandigarh, India

Abstract—Iris recognition is one of the emerging areas as
the demand for security in social and personal areas is
increasing day by day. The main and most challenging step
in the process of iris recognition is iris localization. As
accuracy in localization of iris significantly affect the further
processing of feature extraction and template matching
stages. Traditional algorithms work efficiently and
accurately in localizing iris from eye images taken in
constrained environmental conditions. But their accuracy is
affected when eye images are taken in unconstrained
environmental conditions. The proposed algorithm starts
with determining the exact location of iris even in the
presence of specular highlights and non-ideal environmental
conditions. The proposed algorithm works well for iris
images and the accuracy of segmentation stage has
increased when intuitionistic fuzzy is applied on the UBIRIS
v2 iris images.
Index Terms—Intuitionistic Fuzzy, Clustering,
Recognition and Biometric
I. INTRODUCTION
In this technological era the demand for security in
every field is in danger and it is very challenging to deal
with this security related problem. This security related
problems can be tackled with the help of emerging
biometric technologies. These biometric technologies
include figure print recognition, palm vein recognition,
voice recognition, iris recognition and many more [1, 2].
There is a large interest in improved, authentic, secure
and genuine identification methods which are more useful.
The demand in the area of iris recognition is increasing as
iris is the most unique feature of human body which
remains stable throughout life even though the person
ages, his iris pattern remains same. Iris has the highest
degrees of freedom among all the other biometric features
[1, 2, 3]. Even the iris pattern of both the eyes of an
individual is unique. Some desirable properties like
uniqueness, stability etc. makes iris recognition suitable
for highly reliable and accurate human identification [1,
3]. Iris has a great advantage in mathematics also as its
pattern variability is enormous among different persons.
Iris as a recognition system was introduced in 1987 for
the first time [1]. Many researchers like J Daugman [2-6],
Kevin Bowyer [7] etc. proposed many powerful iris
recognition algorithms. Some of these algorithms need
user co-operation and also take care that user is properly
positioned with respect to camera when image is being
taken to get high quality image. These traditional
algorithms work efficiently with eye images taken under
ideal conditions only. But for using this technology in
real life scenario, it should work effectively and
efficiently under non-ideal conditions also [8, 9, 10].
The proposed algorithm works well for the eye images
taken under non-ideal situations. The main inspiration
behind this paper is to propose an algorithm to handle eye
images which are noisy and taken under non-ideal
situations. In this, intuitionistic fuzzy c mean algorithm is
used for segmentation of eye image into its constituent
Iris parts. Circular Hough transform is used to detect the
inner and the outer circular boundary of the iris. Eyelids
and eyelashes are also removed efficiently to enhance
accuracy of the algorithm.
II. PROPOSED SCHEME
In the proposed algorithm, pre-processing of the eye
images is done first to remove extra noise and blurring.
Image scaling is done to enhance sharpness and
smoothness of the image making image appears soft.
Various steps involved in the proposed scheme are given
below
A. Image Segmentation
Image segmentation is done by using fuzzy c mean
clustering technique [11]. The concept of Fuzzy set [12]
S = {(x, μS (x)) | x ϵ X} (1)
In equation (1), μS (x) is the degree of membership
and non-membership degree is given by 1- μS (x).
However for real life scenarios there always exists a
degree of hesitation or uncertainty associated with this
degree of membership which is not given in any fuzzy set.
Thus the concept of intuitionistic fuzzy set (IFS) was
given to introduce the degree of hesitation [13], which is
given as B
B= {(x, μB (x), vB (x)) | x ϵ X} (2)

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doi:10.4304/jetwi.6.4.460-462
JOURNAL OF EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES IN WEB INTELLIGENCE, VOL. 6, NO. 4, NOVEMBER 2014 461

Where μB (x) is degree of belongingness and vB (x) is

degree of non-belongingness.
μB: X → [0, 1], x ϵ X → μB (x) ϵ [0, 1] (3)
vB: X → [0, 1], x ϵ X → vB(x) ϵ [0, 1] (4)
for all x ϵ X ; μB (x) + vB (x) ≤ 1 (5)
ΠB (x) = 1- μB (x) – vB (x) (6)
Where ΠB (x) is hesitation degree of x to B, IFS
becomes fuzzy set if ΠA (x) = 0
B. Edge Detection
Then edge map of the eye image is created which
makes iris localization easy. Also image is handled
morphologically to delete small noise present in the
image. Edge map of the eye image as shown in figure
1(c), is created using canny edge detector [14]. The Fig.1 The stages of proposed algorithm (a) original eye image (b)
threshold values for canny edge detector are adjusted clustered image after intuitionistic fuzzy c mean, darkest region
represents iris region (c) create image edge map using Canny edge
experimentally so that the algorithm works suitably for detector (d) Apply Canny edge detector to the iris region to get rough
noisy iris images. iris boundaries (e) Apply circular Hough transform to determine iris (f)
localization and removal of eyelid and pupil region.
C. Circular Hough Transform (CHT)
CHT is applied after the canny edge detector to get E. Template Matching
circular iris boundaries. After applying CHT, binary edge The final stage involves comparison of binary iris
image is formed as shown in figure 2. Extra noise is codes to determine if they match for iris recognition.
removed by using morphological operations. As eye Comparisons were calculated accurately by Hamming
images of UBIRIS v2 dataset [15] are taken in non-ideal distance (HD), a dissimilarity measure. Equation below
conditions so many types of noisy factors like specular describes Hamming distance
refection, eyelashes, eyelids, lightening effects etc. are HD= ││ (code A XOR code B) ∩ mask A ∩ mask
present in the image. These various types of noisy factors B││ ∕││mask A ∩mask B││
need to be removed for accurate functioning of the iris By calculating the HD between two bit patterns, a
recognition system. This noise needs to be removed to decision about the exact match or no match between them
avoid iris localization errors and further processing and can be made.
iris matching stages.
D. Eyelid, Eyelash and Pupil Removal
The lower eyelids are removed by the use of linear
Hough transform as most of the occlusions in the lower
part of the eye are linear and can be easily removed by
line Hough transform. There are no lower eyelashes in
most of the case, if some of them are there then they are
removed by drawing a line cutting the left edge of the eye Fig.2 Binary edge map for iris after application of circular Hough
and meeting the other end. Upper eyelids are removed by transform
using Canny edge detection and then applying Hough
transform in vertical direction. A line is drawn from the III. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
left side of the eye above the pupil area and meeting the The implementation was done on the eye images taken
other end of the eye, where there are maximum eyelash from UBIRIS v2 eye image dataset [15]. The dataset
occlusions. This line is drawn after applying Canny edge contained images taken under unconstrained conditions.
detector and getting the exact eyelash edges which are Figure2 shows the original and segmented iris images
then removed with this line. from the dataset. The accuracy and the average
Pupil is removed at the end as there is low intensity segmentation time for the proposed algorithm and various
contrast between the iris and pupil in highly pigmented previous algorithms are given in table I.
eye images taken in non-ideal conditions. Image is first
enhanced in contrast to locate the pupil area easily. Apply
median filter to remove extra noise and then use Canny
edge detector to create edges. Now use circular Hough
transform to create circular boundary of pupil.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENT Object Identifier 10.1016/j.imavis.2009.03.003

I would like to thank God first and all the people who
are involved in fulfilling this research work.

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