When face recognition encounters a mask, the opportunity for iris recognition comes.
Experts point out that the iris recognition standard system needs further improvement
Our reporter Ma Aiping
The sudden new outbreak of pneumonia caused embarrassment to Face ID technology, because once a user puts on a mask, it is difficult to unlock the face. Recently, it has been reported that an updated version of Apple's iOS system will introduce an important function, that is, "face ID can also be used while wearing a mask." In this regard, some domestic technology manufacturers also said that iris recognition can be used as an alternative solution to achieve the ability to unlock the mobile phone while wearing a mask.
Harder to fake than faces and fingerprints
Wearing a mask for face recognition to unlock the phone is technically not easy to solve this problem. "Face masks cover part of the face. Face recognition is faced with a congenital problem of insufficient information, and the face masks are different in style, shape and wearing state. To detect the face in the masked area requires increased preprocessing workload." Automation Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences Researcher Sun Zhenan said in an interview with a reporter from Science and Technology Daily.
How does iris recognition unlock the phone in this situation?
Sun Zhenan introduced that the mobile phone front iris imaging module and near-infrared active light source can obtain near-infrared iris images of the user's eyes in the range of 20-50 cm. The iris texture image of the human eye includes details such as spots, stripes, filaments, crowns, and crypts. Visual characteristics, these characteristics vary from person to person, and almost remain unchanged after one year of birth. Therefore, image processing and pattern recognition methods can be used to accurately identify the identity of the person with the iris image. Iris unlocking is to confirm whether the user is an authorized person to access the mobile phone by comparing the similarity between the user's iris image and the pre-registered template.
"After the iris is formed at the stage of fetal development, it remains unchanged throughout the life course. This determines the uniqueness of the iris characteristics, and also determines the uniqueness of identity recognition." Ma Li, general manager of Zhongke Hongba introduced, iris recognition ratio Face recognition and fingerprint recognition have biometrics characteristics that are more difficult to counterfeit. For example, fingerprints are more prone to wear and damage, contact recognition has the risk of viral infection, and face recognition will have problems such as twins being difficult to distinguish. In addition, facelifts, expressions and postures under different lighting will also affect the recognition effect. During the outbreak, wearing masks, goggles, and hats will also lead to missing facial information.
The proportion in the biometric market is gradually increasing
Face recognition has been widely used before, and iris recognition has not been successfully promoted. However, as the situation of wearing masks becomes more and more common, iris recognition is more and more valued.
"Since the 1990s, scientific researchers have been exploring effective ways to acquire and recognize iris images. The iris recognition discipline has accumulated a wealth of theories and methods after 20 years of development." Sun Zhenan said, the proportion in the biometric recognition market has gradually increased . For example, the mine personnel iris recognition safety management monitoring platform has been applied to hundreds of mining enterprises, including Shenhua Group, China Coal Group, Tongmei Group and other large coal enterprises, occupying more than 80% of the market share.
"With the development of the new coronary pneumonia epidemic, various units and communities pay more and more attention to individual identity authentication and access security screening. Compared with face recognition, iris recognition is not affected by the wearing of masks. Compared with fingerprint recognition, it does not require contact collection, so The new coronary pneumonia epidemic may become a'catalyst' for the explosive growth of iris recognition applications." Sun Zhenan said.
"At present, the iris recognition system can accurately confirm the user's identity under controlled conditions, and has been widely used in important areas such as national licenses, financial securities, border clearance, social security benefits, educational examinations, access control attendance, Internet, information security and other important areas." Sun Zhenan said that with the development of long-distance and mobile-end iris recognition technology, iris recognition application fields are more extensive, such as intelligent transportation toll booths directly brush the owner’s iris deduction, large supermarkets and restaurants to brush the iris checkout, mobile phone iris to handle mobile banking, securities And other affairs.
Iris recognition is of great significance for autonomous control
In Sun Zhenan's view, iris recognition technology is of great significance to national security.
"At present, most domestic markets use domestically controlled iris recognition technology. If the national iris recognition platform or important areas, such as ID card, finance, education, social security, customs clearance, telecommunications, transportation, tourism and other iris recognition applications use foreign technology , Or affect national security and personal information security." Sun Zhenan said.
The team of academician Tan Tieniu of the Institute of Automation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has been conducting research on iris recognition in China since 1998. It has made important progress on a series of key issues such as iris image acquisition, iris region segmentation, iris feature expression, and iris image classification. The iris recognition has been systematically developed The calculation theory and technical method of the iris equipment and recognition system with complete independent intellectual property rights.
"Our self-controllable iris recognition technology is applied on smartphones to provide mobile iris recognition chip solutions for many enterprises; in anti-terrorism maintenance, border security inspection, coal mine safety supervision, public security justice, bank payment, child loss prevention, UN refugee management These fields have been applied on a large scale, and for the first time, China’s iris recognition technology has been exported and authorized by European and American companies and universities, breaking the early technological blockade and the late market monopoly of Western developed countries in the field of iris recognition technology." Sun Zhenan said.
At the same time, Sun Zhenan emphasized that at present, some international and Chinese standardization organizations have formulated some standards and specifications for iris equipment, data, and applications, which are of great significance for the development of iris recognition technology and industry, but the current standard system needs to be further improved. For example, iris feature coding, long-distance multi-user iris imaging, and iris recognition applications in specific industries require standard specifications to promote the development of new technologies and new applications for iris recognition.