Fully automated iris recognition system utilizing wide and narrow fields of view

• US 6,714,665 B1
• Filed: 12/03/1996
• Issued: 03/30/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 09/02/1994
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: SRI International, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Sarnoff Corporation (SRI International, Inc.)
• Inventors: Peleg, Shmuel, Coyle, Peter, Burt, Peter J., Wixson, Lambert E., Herman, Joshua R., Mandlebaum, Robert, Dixon, Douglas F., Mishra, Deepam, Hanna, Keith James
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel, Jayanti K.
• Assistant Examiner(s): CHAWAN, SHEELA C
• Application Number:
  US08/759,346
• Time in Patent Office: 2,674 Days
• Field of Search: 382/117, 382/118, 382/115, 382/148, 382/181, 382/190, 382/199, 382/201, 382/209, 382/240, 382/203, 382/318, 382/319, 382/351, 382/154, 382/106
• US Class Current: 382/117
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 18/00 Pattern recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/245 by locating a pattern; Special marks for positioning
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/161 Detection; Localisation; Normalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/18 Eye characteristics, e.g. of the iris
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/19 Sensors therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/37 using biometric data, e.g. fingerprints, iris scans or voice recognition

Abstract

A recognition system which obtains and analyzes images of at least one object in a scene comprising a wide field of view (WFOV) imager which is used to capture an image of the scene and to locate the object and a narrow field of view (NFOV) imager which is responsive to the location information provided by the WFOV imager and which is used to capture an image of the object, the image of the object having a higher resolution than the image captured by the WFOV imager is disclosed. In one embodiment, a system that obtains and analyzes images of the irises of eyes of a human or animal in an image with little or no active involvement by the human or animal is disclosed. A method for obtaining and analyzing images of at least one object in a scene comprising capturing a wide field of view image of the object to locate the object in the scene; and then using a narrow field of view imager responsive to the location information provided in the capturing step to obtain higher resolution image of the object is also disclosed.

Claims

1. A fully automatic iris recognition system which obtains and analyzes images of an iris of at least one eye in a scene comprising:

a wide view of view imager which is used to capture an image of the scene and to locate the eye; and

a narrow field of view imager, distinct from the wide field of view imager, which is responsive to the location information provided by the wide field of view imager and which is used to capture an image of the iris of the eye, the image captured by the narrow field of view imager having a higher resolution and a narrower field of view than the image captured by the wide field of view imager.

2. The system of claim 1 in which the eye is located on a head and the system includes apparatus, coupled to the wide field of view imager and to a further wide field of view imager, which generates a depth map of an image from stereoscopic information provided by the wide field of view imager and the further wide field of view imager;

means, responsive to the depth map, for locating a head in the image; and

means, responsive to the determined location of the head in the image for locating the eyes.

3. The system of claim 1 in which the eye is located on a head and the system includes apparatus, coupled to the wide field of view imager which is responsive to motion in the image to locate the head in the image;

and

means, responsive to the determined location of the head in the image for locating the eyes.

4. The system of claim 1 in which the eye is located on a head and the system includes apparatus, coupled to the wide field of view imager which is responsive to flesh tones in the image to locate the head in the image;

and

means, responsive to the determined location of the head in the image for locating the eyes.

5. The system of claim 1 in which the eye is located on a head and the system includes:

apparatus, coupled to the wide field of view imager which is responsive to patterns in the image corresponding to a face to locate the head in the image; and

means, responsive to the determined location of the head in the image for locating the eyes.

6. The system of claim 1 in which the eye is located on a head and the system includes apparatus, coupled to the wide field of view imager which matches sections of the image corresponding to a face to a template to locate the eye in the image.

7. A fully automatic object recognition system which obtains and analyzes images of at least one object in a scene comprising:

a wide view of view imager which is used to capture an image of the scene and to locate the object; and

a narrow field of view imager, distinct from the wide field of view imager, which is responsive to the location information provided by the wide field of view imager and which is used to capture an image of the object, the image captured by the narrow field of view imager having a higher resolution and a narrower field of view than the image captured by the wide field of view imager.

8. The system of claim 7 wherein the object has a feature and the narrow field of view imager captures an image of the feature.

9. The system of claim 8 wherein the image of the feature excludes other parts of the object.

10. The system of claim 7 further comprising a further wide field of view imager which is used to capture a further image of the scene;

and the fully automatic recognition system further comprises;

means for producing a depth map from stereoscopic information provided by the wide field of view imager and the further wide field of view imager;

means, responsive to the depth map, for locating the object in the image; and

means, responsive to the determined location of the object in the image for locating a feature on the object.

11. A fully automatic object recognition system which obtains and analyzes images of at least one object in a scene comprising:

at least one wide view of view imager;

wide field of view circuitry, coupled to the wide field of view imager, which processes images provided from the wide field of view imager;

a narrow field of view imager, distinct from the wide field of view imager, coupled to the wide field of view circuitry; and

narrow field of view circuitry, coupled to the narrow field of view imager and to the wide field of view circuitry, which directs the narrow field of view imager based on data provided by the wide field of view circuitry and which processes images provided from the narrow field of view imager.

12. The system of claim 11 wherein in the wide field of view circuitry comprises:

control circuitry which controls operations of the narrow field of view imager and the wide field of view imager;

a crosspoint switch; and

at least one pyramid processor coupled to the crosspoint switch, the pyramid processor processes images provided from the wide field of view imager via the crosspoint switch.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein the narrow field of view circuitry comprises a pyramid processor, coupled to the crosspoint switch, that processes the images provided from the narrow field of view imager via the crosspoint switch.

14. A fully automatic object recognition system which obtains and analyzes images of an object in a scene composing:

coarse imaging means for capturing an image of the scene at a first resolution and for processing the image at the first resolution to locate the object in a region of interest in the image; and

fine imaging means, distinct from the coarse imaging means and responsive to the coarse imaging means, for capturing an image of the region of interest at a second resolution, greater than the first resolution and for processing the region of interest at the second resolution to capture a high-resolution image of the object.

15. A method for obtaining and analyzing images of at least one object in a scene comprising the steps of:

capturing a wide field of view image of the object to locate the object in the scene; and

responsive to the location information provided in the capturing step capturing a high resolution image of the scene which includes the object, the high resolution image having a greater resolution and a narrower field of view than the wide field of view image, the high resolution image being distinct from the wide field of view image.

16. A method for obtaining and analyzing images of an object in a scene comprising the steps of:

capturing a first image of the scene;

processing the first image at a coarse resolution to locate the object in a region of interest in the scene;

responsive to location information provided by the processing step, capturing a second image of the region of interest in the scene said second image having a higher resolution and narrower field of view than the first image; and

processing the second image at a second resolution greater than the first resolution to capture a high resolution image of the object.