You are here

A Machine Learning Approach to Assessment of Image Quality through Prediction of Iris Recognition Success

Award Information
Agency: Department of Homeland Security
Branch: N/A
Contract: D11PC20252
Agency Tracking Number: DHS SBIR-2011.2-H-SB011.2-005-0011-I
Amount: $99,366.66
Phase: Phase I
Program: SBIR
Solicitation Topic Code: H-SB011.2-005
Solicitation Number: N/A
Timeline
Solicitation Year: 2011
Award Year: 2011
Award Start Date (Proposal Award Date): 2011-09-15
Award End Date (Contract End Date): 2012-09-30
Small Business Information
145 Pine Rd
Evans City, PA 16033-3323
United States
DUNS: 965516292
HUBZone Owned: No
Woman Owned: No
Socially and Economically Disadvantaged: No
Principal Investigator
 Michael Happold
 happ@rhobotika.com
Business Contact
 Michael Happold
Email: happ@rhobotika.com
Research Institution
N/A
Abstract

It is clear from prior research that quality metrics can predict and improve recognition performance. As we add new quality metrics, however,
determining a weighting scheme using simple rules for their combination becomes infeasible. This argues for a machine learning approach that will
automatically determine the optimal weighting. We propose to develop a large set of quality metrics based on requirements set down in the IREX
II/IQCE evaluation. These metrics will form a feature vector supplied to a novel manifold-learning algorithm developed recently for function
approximation, which will be trained to predict the performance of stages in various iris recognition algorithms as well the algorithms' final recognition
performance. Applying standard feature selection techniques, our system will also automatically determine a weighting for the features to be used,
identifying features that contribute little and can be eliminated. The final quality metrics will be combinations of the outputs of the feature extractor
associated with the metrics and their weighting as determined by our system. Such a flexible image quality assessment system would have application
beyond iris recognition to other areas in biometrics, such as face recognition, but also to domains such as stereovision, visual odometry, and general
object recognition. Image quality metrics are largely at the level of proof-of-concept demonstration on available datasets. Our work will take this
technology from TRL 3 to TRL 4 by integrating the metrics with recognition algorithms by acting as a front-end predicting performance and so
indicating whether an image is adequate to the task.

* Information listed above is at the time of submission. *

US Flag An Official Website of the United States Government