Animal identification system based on irial granule analysis

• US 6,320,973 B2
• Filed: 02/28/2001
• Issued: 11/20/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 03/26/1997
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: OKI Electric Industry Company Limited
• Original Assignee: OKI Electric Industry Company Limited
• Inventors: Suzaki, Masahiko, Kuno, Yuji
• Primary Examiner(s): Mehta, Bhavesh
• Application Number:
  US09/794,276
• Publication Number:
  US 20010017935A1
• Time in Patent Office: 265 Days
• Field of Search: 382/100, 382/110, 382/117, 382/115, 351/205, 351/206, 351/211
• US Class Current: 382/110
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/18 Eye characteristics, e.g. of the iris

Abstract

An animal identification system is provided which is designed to determine outlines of a pupil and irial granule in an input image of an eye of an animal to be identified, apply an arc to a lower portion of the outline of the pupil, turns back the arc from a principal axis to define a reference axis, and maps an image of the irial granule into a polar coordinate system whose origin is the center of the reference axis. The shape of the irial granule corrected in the above manner is compared with a reference shape stored in a memory to determine whether the input image arises from the same animal or not.

Claims

1. An animal identification apparatus comprising:

an outline extracting circuit that extracts from an image of an eye of an animal to be identified including a pupil and an irial granule an outline of said pupil;

an arc application processing circuit that determines an arc approximate to a specified portion of said extracted outline;

an irial granule deforming circuit that deforms the irial granule in said image according to the degree of deformation of said arc up to a reference level; and

a storage that registers data on said deformed irial granule of the animal to be registered.

2. An animal identification apparatus as set forth in claim 1, wherein said arc application processing circuit determines said arc in an x-y coordinate system to provide arc data indicating a length, a radius, and an angle of said arc, and wherein said irial granule deforming circuit maps said irial granule into polar coordinates wherein a straight line is defined as said reference level based on said arc data.

3. An animal identification apparatus as set forth in claim 1, further comprising an irial granule identification circuit that compares data on said deformed irial granule of the animal to be identified with said data registered in said storage to determine whether said animal is registered or not based on a correlation between said compared data.

4. An animal identification method comprising the steps of:

extracting from an image of an eye of an animal to be identified including a pupil and an irial granule an outline of said pupil;

applying an approximate arc to a specified portion of said extracted outline;

deforming the irial granule in said image according to the degree of deformation of said arc up to a reference level; and

registering data on said deformed irial granule of the animal in a storage.

5. An animal identification apparatus as set forth in claim 4, wherein arc data indicating a length, a radius, and an angle of said arc is determined to map said irial granule into polar coordinates wherein a straight line is defined as said reference level based on said arc data.