Iris Biometrics Questions & Answers
Q: Is iris biometrics affected by Lasik eye correction, or any other corrective surgery, or by disease?
A: No, Lasik eye correction should not cause any trouble with iris recognition. In fact, few eye surgeries or diseases directly impact the iris. Examples that might interfere would include: Surgery that leaves scars over the iris and intraocular lens implants. Scars may prevent identification if the comparison is against a record of the eye before surgery. Lense implants may produce significant glare that can make it challenging to capture a high quality iris image.
Q: Does wearing glasses or contact lenses prevent iris identification?
A: Soft contact lenses are unlikely to cause problems, but both glasses and hard contact lenses might produce glare or partly obstruct the iris. If the glare is large enough, identification will be prevented. Removing glasses before capture, especially during initial enrollment, is the easiest way to ensure a high-quality image.
Q: What is a template?
A: The iris template is a special biometric reference in which iris features have been stored for the purpose of matching. Matching compares the stored iris template against the new iris features extracted from the recently captured iris image data.
Q: How long does it take to generate one template?
A: The processing of an image to create a template is fast but highly dependant upon the memory and speed of the PC handling the processing. Creating a template normally requires no more than a fraction of a second.
