Retinal Scan
Sami Lyden
Presentation
● Biometrics– Method– Advantages– Disadvantages
● Retinal recognition– Scanners– Methods
● Comparison● Developement?
Biometrics: Eye● Eye is fully developed at
birth● Doesn't significally
chage during life● Individually unique
pattern of veins at retina● Vein patterns and
intersections are fixed● Veins emanate from the
optic nerve● Method dates to 1930's
Biometrics: Advantages
● Isolated biometrics– Difficult to reach– Easy to read
● Insignificant interference● Stable● Unique● Protected● Insensitive to
environmental conditions● Extremely accurate
verificator
Twin A
Twin B
Biometrics: Disadvantages
● Difficult to reach– There are no completely non-intrusive scanning
methods– Very little development in the area
● Medical scanners are made for accurasy● There is huge amount of usable identification data but
current methods only use very small portion of it● Resources are directed to other methods
● Eye is vulnerable to disease and trauma● Most(?) scanners now require interaction
(eye focus and direction)
Recognition: History
● First automated retinal scanner and indentifier was patented 1977 by Robert B. Hill– Used green diodes to
reflect light from the fundus– The light reflected from
blood vessels was identified and mapped for recognition
Eye Dentify's Retinal scanner, 1989.
Recognition: History (cont.)
● System first detected the optic nerve
● Then scanned the region using 360 diodes
● Veins are then mapped as features
● Acuired data is very simple. The verification process is very fast
Recognition: History (cont.)
● The scanner is replaced by infrared Laser scanners during 80's
● Scanners still require the target to remain very close to scanners
● The scanners are large complicated and expensive.
Koji Kobayashi's scanner
Robert H. Webb's scanner
Recognition: History (cont.)● First scanners also used lasers with so high
energy that some left the target dazed after the scan
● Other more lucrative methods replace the retinal scanning as more user friendly
● Almost all resources are diverted to other biometrics study
● Only research is done in private high security installations. (If any)
● Scanners are still developed for medical purposes
Retinal Recognition: New Beginning?
● Retinal Technologies, is a company that has developed medical scanners has come up with new method derived from those medical scanners.
● Entire retina is illuminated at once using infrared laser.
Comparison
● The data is very simple. Allows quick 1:N searches
● Data is also very accurate which allows effective 1:1 comparison
● Almost no unwanted interfering data● Very few comparison tests are available● No exact up to date FAR's or FRR's available● Still the method is considered the most
accurate method of all Biometrics
Comparison (cont.)
● Biometric data allows very accurate verification– Problem is the scanner.
● They currently operate at 1m distance
● Retinal scanners are used at High-End security installations
Crossover errorFingerprint 1 in 500Hand Geometry 1 in 500Speaker Recog. 1 in 50Iris Scan 1 in 131,000Retinal Scan 1 in 10,000,000Signature Recog 1 in 50----------------------------------------Statistics are from National Centerfor State Courts(US) and BiometricTechnology, Inc Web pages (rev 2002)
Comparison (cont.)
● Forging fake retina is virtually impossible● Bloodvessels quickly deteriorate after death
– 1:1 verification is still possible after death● Infrared scanner could be used to detect
blood flow at the vessels● Other methods could be used to verify the eye
is living● Scanning operation also requires for the eye
to focus at the reader
Comparison (cont.)
● Retinal scanning is not influensed by out side interference– lighting, aging, injury, air conditions,
temperature...● People naturally protect their eyes
– Smaller chance for injury– People wont be able to accept the idea of laser
beam being fired into the eye. (never)
Retinal Scanners
● There are 2 players at the market currently
● Eye Dentify is the main suplier of retinal scanners– They don't produce final
security products but use re-sellers
● Retinal Technology has produced a new method
Retinal Scanners
● Both scanners are fast– Eye Dentify's take less than 2sec for scan
● They are insensitive to environmental conditions
– (claim to be. Wonder if they workoutside when its raining)
● Both work up to 3' (1m)● Cost effective
– According to the manufacturers. I coudn't find any actual prices..
Retinal Technologies● On April 1st, 2002, Retinal Technologies received a
notice of allowance from the US patent office.– Method for generating a unique and consistent
signal pattern for identification of an individual● Exact data of the above method is not currently
available● Also owns other patents for medical retinal
scanners
Retinal Technologies
● The scanning method for Retinal technologies is similar to that of the Eye Dentify
● Scanning works in 4 steps● First the intensity profile is
extracted● Step two: A scan
Retinal Technologies
● Step Three: The blood Veins are located
● Step Four: A Circular Bar Code is generated from the veins
● This produces a relatively short data template
Future?
● One of the problems for Retinal Scanning is that the method for identifying has been extremely efficient but the scanner have been expensive and intrusive so this has not been a very lucrative method and recourses have been placed elsewhere
● The scanners have been developed for medical purposes -> they have become faster and smaller
● But the problem of intrusiveness remains.● Still as a highly accurate method that cannot be fooled
the high security installations will continue to use and possibly develope the scanners
Key References
US Patent and Trademark Office. Patent Database: http://www.uspto.gov/patft/index.html
(patents:)Biometric Technology, Inc
http://www.bio-tech-inc.com/Eye Dentify, Inc
(Currently no Web-pages)Retinal Technologies, LLChttp://www.retinaltech.com/