Phacoemulsification Cataract Surgery Affects the Discriminative Capacity of Iris Pattern Recognition

Abstract

Cataract is a common ophthalmic disorder and the leading cause of blindness worldwide. While cataract is cured via surgical procedures, its impact on iris based biometric recognition has not been effectively studied. The key objective of this research is to assess the effect of cataract surgery on the iris texture pattern as a means of personal authentication. We prepare and release the IIITD Cataract Surgery Database (CaSD) captured from 132 cataract patients using three commercial iris sensors. A non-comparative non-randomized cohort study is performed on the iris texture patterns in CaSD and authentication performance is studied using three biometric recognition systems. Performance is lower when matching pre-operative images to post-operative images (74.69 ± 9.77%) as compared to matching pre-operative images to pre-operative images (93.42 ± 1.76%). 100% recognition performance is observed on a control-group of healthy irises from 68 subjects. Authentication performance improves if cataract affected subjects are re-enrolled in the system, though re-enrollment does not ensure performance at par with pre-operative scenarios (86.67 ± 5.64%). The results indicate that cataract surgery affects the discriminative nature of the iris texture pattern. This finding raises concerns about the reliability of iris-based biometric recognition systems in the context of subjects undergoing cataract surgery.

Digital Public Services: The Development of Biometric Authentication in India

“…For example, fingerprints tend to wear off, and eye surgeries can alter iris texture patterns. These can result in technical errors, due to a mismatch between the original biometric records (captured during registration) and those being captured in real time (Ramanathan, 2018;Nigam et al, 2019). Populations such as senior citizens and casual laborers are particularly vulnerable to such authentication errors (Khera, 2019a, b).…”

Ocular biometric analysis of cataract surgery candidates, referred from community outreach camps, organized at rural areas of central India

“…Though, the occurrence of cataracts as the public health issue continues to increase as the world-wide mean life expectancy rises. 11 Although there are several studies that explain these mean parameters in European-Caucasian population, but there has been very little attention to the studies carried out in Asian, Black and Hispanic populations. 12 There has not before been a large study of biometric values for rural Indian population.…”

Commentary: Unfolding the role of biometric identification procedures in the current digital era

“…Nigam et al . [ 7 ] studied the IIT Delhi Cataract Surgery Database from 132 patients employing three commercial iris sensors and assessed the iris texture patterns. The performance was lower when preoperative images were matched to post-operative images (74.69 ± 9.77%) than when preoperative images were compared to preoperative images (93.42 ± 1.76%).…”