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/