Iris synthesis: a reverse subdivision application

Abstract

Due to renewed interest in security, iris images have become a popular biometric alternative to fingerprints for human identification. However, there exist very few databases on which researchers can test iris recognition technology. We present a novel method to augment existing databases through iris image synthesis. A multiresolution technique known as reverse subdivision is used to capture the necessary characteristics from existing irises, which are then combined to form a new iris image. In order to improve the results, a set of heuristics to classify iris images is proposed. We analyze the performance of these heuristics and provide preliminary results of the iris synthesis method.