Segmenting iris images in the visible spectrum with applications in mobile biometrics

• An overview of mobile device based biometric recognition.
• An outline of various steps involved in iris recognition.
• A review of some popular iris segmentation algorithms applicable for images acquired in the visible (VIS) spectrum.

The widespread use of mobile devices with Internet connectivity has resulted in the storage and transmission of sensitive data. This has heightened the need to perform reliable user authentication on mobile devices in order to prevent an adversary from accessing such data. Biometrics, the science of recognizing individuals based on their biological and behavioral traits, has the potential to be leveraged for this purpose. In this work, we briefly discuss the suitability of using the iris texture for biometric recognition in mobile devices. One of the critical components of an iris recognition system is the segmentation module which separates the iris from other ocular attributes. Since current mobile devices acquire color images of an object, we conduct a literature review for performing automated iris segmentation in the visible spectrum. The goal is to convey the possibility of successfully incorporating iris recognition in mobile devices.