Iris/retina is the annular tissue between the pupil and the white of the eye, which is the visible part of the human eye. It is the most reliable lifelong identity of human beings.
Iris recognition/retina recognition is a technology that causes little interference to people in biometric identification related to eyes. It uses quite common camera elements and does not require users to touch the machine. In addition, it can achieve higher template matching performance. Therefore, it attracts the attention of all kinds of people. Among all biometric technologies, iris/retina recognition is the most convenient and accurate one. 2 1 century is a century of information technology and network technology, and it is also a century in which human beings get rid of the shackles of traditional technology and become more and more free. In this century characterized by information and freedom, biometric authentication technology, as a high-tech that began to flourish at the end of the 20th century, will surely occupy an increasingly important position in social life and fundamentally change the way of life of human beings. Iris/retina, fingerprint and dna will gradually replace the existing passwords and keys and become people's accustomed lifestyles. At the same time, the security of personal data is guaranteed to the maximum extent, and all kinds of criminal and economic crimes are prevented to the maximum extent.
Iris recognition/retina recognition technology, because of its unique advantages in collection and accuracy, will inevitably become the mainstream biometric authentication technology in the future society. In the future, the application of security control, customs import and export inspection, e-commerce and other fields will inevitably focus on iris/retina recognition technology. This trend has gradually begun to appear in various applications around the world.
Characteristics of biological activity of iris: iris/retina is a visible part of human eyes, protected by sclera, and has strong biological activity. For example, the size of the pupil changes with the intensity of light; There is an unconscious adjustment process in looking at things; There are more than ten unconscious pupils dilated every second; When a person dies of brain, is in a deep coma or the eyeball tissue is separated from the human body, the iris/retina tissue completely contracts and mydriasis occurs. These biological activities coexist with human life phenomena, so it is impossible to replace living iris/retina images with photos, videos and corpses, thus ensuring the authenticity of physiological tissues.
Non-contact: digital images of iris/retina can be obtained within a certain distance, which is harmless to human body without the user touching the equipment, so it is easy to be accepted by the public.
Uniqueness: Uniqueness means that each iris/retina contains different information, and the possibility that iris/retina tissues have the same shape is much lower than other tissues. The fiber tissue of iris/retina is complex and rich in details, and its formation is related to the local physical and chemical conditions of the tissue during embryogenesis, which has great randomness. Even with cloning technology, iris/retina cannot be duplicated. The iris/retina texture information of identical twins is different, and the iris/retina texture of the left and right eyes of the same person will be inconsistent.
Stability: Iris/retina is extremely stable throughout a person's life. It was formed before birth (when the fetus was 7 months old), fixed after 6- 18 months, and remained unchanged for life thereafter. General diseases will not cause damage to iris/retina tissue, and will not cause wear and tear due to occupation and other factors.
Anti-counterfeiting: it is impossible to change the iris/retina characteristics through surgery without seriously affecting vision, and it is even more impossible to change the iris/retina tissue characteristics of a person to be the same as those of a specific object. Photos, videos, and iris/retina images of corpses can be detected instead of living people.
According to idc (International Data Group), by the end of 2003, the global market capacity of iris/retina recognition technology and related products will reach US$ 2 billion. According to the conservative survey of China Biomedical Certification Center, the iris/retina recognition market in China alone will reach 4 billion RMB in the next five years. With the expansion of iris/retina recognition technology and its application in the field of e-commerce, this number will expand to hundreds of billions.
The development of iris/retina recognition can be traced back to 65438+80s. 1885, alphonsebertillon applied the idea of identifying individuals through biometrics to the criminal prison in Paris. Biometrics used at that time included the size of ears, the length of feet, iris/retina and so on.
1987, ophthalmologists aransafir and leonardflom first put forward the concept of automatic iris/retina recognition using iris/retina images. By 199 1, Johnson of Los Alamos National Laboratory has realized the automatic iris/retina recognition system.
1993, johndaugman realized a high-performance automatic iris/retina recognition prototype system.
1997, the first patent for iris/retina recognition in China, which was approved by the applicant Wang Jiesheng.
In 2005, the State Key Laboratory of Pattern Recognition of Institute of Automation, China Academy of Sciences won the "Second Prize of National Technological Invention" for its outstanding achievements in "Iris/Retina Image Acquisition and Recognition Technology", representing the highest level of iris/retina recognition technology development in China.