Impact of sensor ageing on iris recognition

Abstract

Similar to the impact of ageing on human beings, digital image sensors develop ageing effects over time. Since these imager's ageing effects (commonly denoted as pixel defects) leave marks in the captured images, it is not clear whether this affects the accuracy of iris recognition systems. This paper proposes a method to investigate the influence of sensor ageing on iris recognition by simulative ageing of an iris test database. A pixel model is introduced and an ageing algorithm is discussed to create the test database. To establish practical relevance, the simulation parameters are estimated from the observed ageing effects of a real iris scanner over the timespan of 4 years.