Ocular biometrics: A survey of modalities and fusion approaches

•A literature review of ocular modalities such as iris and periocular is presented.•Information fusion approaches that combine ocular modalities with other modalities are reviewed.•Future research directions are presented on sensing technologies, algorithms, and fusion approaches.

Biometrics, an integral component of Identity Science, is widely used in several large-scale-county-wide projects to provide a meaningful way of recognizing individuals. Among existing modalities, ocular biometric traits such as iris, periocular, retina, and eye movement have received significant attention in the recent past. Iris recognition is used in Unique Identification Authority of India’s Aadhaar Program and the United Arab Emirate’s border security programs, whereas the periocular recognition is used to augment the performance of face or iris when only ocular region is present in the image. This paper reviews the research progression in these modalities. The paper discusses existing algorithms and the limitations of each of the biometric traits and information fusion approaches which combine ocular modalities with other modalities. We also propose a path forward to advance the research on ocular recognition by (i) improving the sensing technology, (ii) heterogeneous recognition for addressing interoperability, (iii) utilizing advanced machine learning algorithms for better representation and classification, (iv) developing algorithms for ocular recognition at a distance, (v) using multimodal ocular biometrics for recognition, and (vi) encouraging benchmarking standards and open-source software development.

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