Exploring Near-Infrared Iris Image Sequences for High Throughput Iris Recognition

High throughput is demanding in real-world iris recognition applications. The challenges mainly originate from the variability in image quality under high-throughput capture conditions. Most of the degraded images are typically filtered out by traditional iris systems through Image Quality Assessment (IQA) module, adversely affecting efficiency and leading to low throughput and poor user experience. Therefore, a better and practical solution is to make the utmost of degraded iris images. In order to investigate the key problems of high-throughput iris recognition, we collect a novel iris sequence dataset under Near-infrared (NIR) illumination. This dataset is specifically constructed for high-throughput evaluation, which faithfully simulates the process of iris sequence acquisition in real-world iris systems. Comprehensive evaluations were conducted to figure out the deficiencies of current iris recognition algorithms. To this end, a testing methodology along with specific evaluation metrics is proposed. It is capable of assessing the throughput performance, e.g., the newly proposed Frame Consumption per Match (FCM). Through performance analysis, several insights were gathered to guide potential directions for developing high-throughput iris recognition algorithms. Furthermore, we consider to leverage iris sequence features for better throughput performance. Continuity sequence criteria and cumulative sequence feature strategy are proposed to enhance the throughput performance of existing algorithms with minimal cost. In summary, this work provides valuable data and rational insights for high-throughput iris recognition studies. The datasets and evaluation toolkit are publicly available on our website (http://biometrics.idealtest.org/#/).