We propose a new cascaded regressor for eye center detection. Previous methods start from a face or an eye detector and use either advanced features or powerful regressors for eye center localization, but not both. Instead, we detect the eyes more accurately using an existing facial feature alignment method. We improve the robustness of localization by using both advanced features and powerful regression machinery. Unlike most other methods that do not refine the regression results, we make the localization more accurate by adding a robust circle fitting post-processing step. Finally, using a simple hand-crafted method for eye center localization, we show how to train the cascaded regressor without the need for manually annotated training data. We evaluate our new approach and show that it achieves state-of-the-art performance on the BioID, GI4E, and the TalkingFace datasets. At an average normalized error of e < 0.05, the regressor trained on manually annotated data yields an accuracy of 95.07 (BioID), 99.27 (GI4E), and 95.68 (TalkingFace). The automatically trained regressor is nearly as good, yielding an accuracy of 93.9 (BioID), 99.27 (GI4E), and 95.46 (TalkingFace).
The majority of eye center localization methods are hand-crafted approaches and can be divided into shape and appearance based methods. In the iris recognition literature there are also many segmentation based approaches, such as methods that employ active contours. An extensive overview is given by Hansen and Li @cite_20 . Shape-based techniques make use of the circular or elliptical nature of the iris and pupil. Early methods attempted to detect irises or pupils directly by fitting circles or ellipses. Many techniques have roots in the iris recognition and are based on the integrodifferential operator @cite_0 . Others, such as Kawaguchi al @cite_4 , use blob detection to extract iris candidates and use Hough transform to fit circles to these blobs. Toennies al @cite_14 also employ generalized Hough transform to detect irises, but assume that every pixel is a potential edge point and cast votes proportional to gradient strength. Li al @cite_10 propose the Startburst algorithm, where rays are iteratively cast from the current pupil center estimate to detect pupil boundaries and RANSAC is used for robust ellipse fitting.
@cite_14 @cite_4 @cite_0 @cite_10 @cite_20
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Efficient and robust segmentation of less intrusively or non-cooperatively captured iris images is still a challenging task in iris biometrics. This paper proposes a novel two-stage algorithm for the localization and mapping of iris texture in images of the human eye into Daugman's doubly dimensionless polar coordinates. Motivated by the growing demand for real-time capable solutions, coarse center detection and fine boundary localization usually combined in traditional approaches are decoupled. Therefore, search space at each stage is reduced without having to stick to simpler models. Another motivation of this work is independence of sensors. A comparison of reference software on different datasets highlights the problem of database-specific optimizations in existing solutions. This paper instead proposes the application of Gaussian weighting functions to incorporate model-specific prior knowledge. An adaptive Hough transform is applied at multiple resolutions to estimate the approximate position of the iris center. Subsequent polar transform detects the first elliptic limbic or pupillary boundary, and an ellipsopolar transform finds the second boundary based on the outcome of the first. This way, both iris images with clear limbic (typical for visible-wavelength) and with clear pupillary boundaries (typical for near infrared) can be processed in a uniform manner. This paper presents a multi-stage iris segmentation framework for the localization of pupillary and limbic boundaries of human eyes. Instead of applying time-consuming exhaustive search approaches, like traditional circular Hough Transform or Daugman's integrodifferential operator, an iterative approach is used. By decoupling coarse center detection and fine boundary localization, faster processing and modular design can be achieved. This alleviates more sophisticated quality control and feedback during the segmentation process. By avoiding database-specific optimizations, this work aims at supporting different sensors and light spectra, i.e. Visible Wavelength and Near Infrared, without parameter tuning. The system is evaluated by using multiple open iris databases and it is compared to existing classical approaches. Iris segmentation plays an important role in an accurate iris recognition system. In less constrained environments where iris images are captured at-a-distance and on-the-move, iris segmentation becomes much more difficult due to the effects of significant variation of eye position and size, eyebrows, eyelashes, glasses and contact lenses, and hair, together with illumination changes and varying focus condition. This paper contributes to robust and accurate iris segmentation in very noisy images. Our main contributions are as follows: (1) we propose a limbic boundary localization algorithm that combines K-Means clustering based on the gray-level co-occurrence histogram and an improved Hough transform, and, in possible failures, a complementary method that uses skin information; the best localization between this and the former is selected. (2) An upper eyelid detection approach is presented, which combines a parabolic integro-differential operator and a RANSAC (RANdom SAmple Consensus)-like technique that utilizes edgels detected by a one-dimensional edge detector. (3) A segmentation approach is presented that exploits various techniques and different image information, following the idea of focus of attention, which progressively detects the eye, localizes the limbic and then pupillary boundaries, locates the eyelids and removes the specular highlight. The proposed method was evaluated in the UBIRIS.v2 testing database by the NICE.I organizing committee. We were ranked #4 among all participants according to the evaluation results. This paper presents an active contour model to accurately detect pupil boundary in order to improve the performance of iris recognition systems. The contour model takes into consideration that an actual pupil boundary is a near-circular contour rather than a perfect circle. Two types of controlling force models, introduced as internal and external forces, are designed to properly activate the contour and locate it over the pupil boundary. The internal forces are designed to smooth the curve as well as to keep it close to a circular shape by pushing the contour vertices to their local radial mean. The external forces, which are responsible for pulling the contour vertices toward the pupil boundary, are designed based on a circular-curve gradient measurement with a proper angular range with respect to the contour center. In addition, an iterative algorithm has been developed in order to capture limbus and eyelids. The developed algorithm iteratively searches the limbus and eyelids boundaries and excludes the detected eyelids areas that cover the iris. Excluding the eyelids leads to a more precise search for limbus in the next iteration and the search is completed when the circular parameters of the limbus converge to fixed values. The eyelid contours are modeled as elliptic curves considering the spherical shape of an eyeball and the search is based on the expected contour in different degrees of eye openness.