Effects of Time-Lapse and Contact Lenses on Iris Recognition

Iris biometrics is a flourishing field with multiple companies offering commercial systems being implemented in several real-world scenarios. However, before iris recognition can be implemented on a world-wide scale, important questions regard- ing its accuracy must be addressed.

From its conception, iris biometrics has operated with the assumption that the iris texture is highly stable over an individual's lifetime and the claim has been made (and widely accepted) that enrollment is 'once for a lifetime.' Using four years time-lapse data for 46 'iris-subjects?,' we present results from three different iris recognition systems that indicate that the iris biometrics template does 'age'

Another element of iris biometrics folklore is that performance is not affected by sub jects wearing contact lenses during acquisitions. Our study on 124 non contact lens wearing sub jects and 88 contact lens sub jects yields results opposing this claim.

We present results debunking both of these common myths in iris recognition and show a real effect of time-lapse and contact lenses on iris biometric performance.