On the feasibility of the visible wavelength, at-a-distance and on-the-move iris recognition

The dramatic growth in practical applications for iris biometrics has been accompanied by relevant developments in the underlying algorithms and techniques. Among others, one active research area concerns about the development of iris recognition systems less constrained to users, either increasing the imaging distances, simplifying the acquisition protocols or the required lighting conditions. In this paper we address the possibility of perform reliable recognition using visible wavelength images captured under high heterogeneous lighting conditions, with subjects at-a-distance (between 4 and 8 meters) and on-the-move. The feasibility of this extremely ambitious type of recognition is analyzed, its major obstacles and challenges discussed and some directions for forthcoming work pointed.