Capturing and sensing iris images
Take a moment to look at your own iris. When examining your iris up close, you will see lines, waves, and dots, along with light and dark areas. All of these make a unique pattern that is used during iris recognition.
Obtaining an iris image goes through several phases, as shown in the following screenshot:
Figure 7.5 – Preparing the iris
As shown in the preceding screenshot, the process is as follows:
- The subject positions themselves in front of the capture device.
- The device captures the image.
- Algorithms isolate and detect the iris.
- The iris image is extracted.
- Any non-iris artifacts, such as eyelid and eyelashes, are removed.
- The image is normalized.
- The iris image is encoded into a template.
- The template is stored in the system database.
One of the first steps in iris recognition is obtaining a high-quality image, as we’ll learn in the next section.
