Iris Scanner or Facial Recognition: What is your preferred choice?

Hello Mi fans,

How's everyone doing? Hope all are having a great time with some exciting stuff coming your way over the next few weeks.

Privacy is one of the main areas of focus for any user and the technology has evolved from the earlier times when the pin code lock was the main mode of securing the phone from other users. From pin codes with the evolution of touch screen phones we saw a pattern lock that was introduced which has now grown to the finger print scanners included in all the phones. Off late there have been new developments and over the past few months we have seen phones having Iris Scanners and others featuring Facial Recognition that are the main mode of unlocking the phone.

Todays main focus is going to be on the two technologies that are currently being introduced Iris Scanners (Galaxy Note 7) and Face Recognition (LG G6 and Iphone X).

Lets start with a brief description of both the technologies followed by some more information on how they work.

Iris Recognition:

Iris recognition is an automated method of biometric identification that uses mathematical pattern-recognition techniques on video images of one or both of the irises of an individual's eyes,

whose complex patterns are unique, stable, and can be seen from some distance.

Iris scanning has a simple CCD digital camera. It uses both visible and near-infrared light to take a clear, high-contrast picture of a person's iris. With near-infrared light, a person's pupil is very black, making it easy for the computer to isolate the pupil and iris. When you look into an iris scanner, either the camera focuses automatically or you use a mirror or audible feedback from the system to make sure that you are positioned correctly. Usually, your eye is 3 to 10 inches from the camera. When the camera takes a picture, the computer locates:

The center of the pupil, the edge of the pupil, the edge of the iris and the eyelids and eyelashes.

Advantages of Iris Identification:

• Highly protected, internal organ of the eye
• Externally visible; patterns imaged from a distance
• Iris patterns possess a high degree of randomness
• uniqueness: set by combinatorial complexity
• Changing pupil size confirms natural physiology
• Limited genetic penetrance of iris patterns
• Patterns apparently stable throughout life
• Encoding and decision-making are tractable
  
  

Disadvantages of Iris Identification:

• Small target (1 cm) to acquire from a distance (1 m)
• Moving target ...within another... on yet another
• Located behind a curved, wet, reflecting surface
• Obscured by eyelashes, lenses, reflections
• Partially occluded by eyelids, often drooping
• Deforms non-elastically as pupil changes size
• Illumination should not be visible or bright
• Some negative (Orwellian) connotations
  
  

Face Recognition:

A face recognition system is a computer application capable of identifying or verifying a person from a digital image or a video frame from a video source. One of the ways to do this is by

comparing selected facial features from the image and a face database.

The two main techniques used in facial recognition are:

Techniciques used in face recognition:

Traditional:

Technology where algorithm may analyze the relative position, size, and/or shape of the eyes, nose, cheekbones, and jaw.

3-dimensional recognition:

This technique uses 3D sensors to capture information about the shape of a face. This information is then used to identify distinctive features on the surface of a face, such as the contour of the eye sockets, nose, and chin.

Skin texture analysis:

This technique uses the visual details of the skin, as captured in standard digital or scanned images. This technique, called skin texture analysis, turns the unique lines, patterns, and spots

apparent in a person’s skin into a mathematical space.

Thermal cameras:

Through this technique the cameras will only detect the shape of the head and it will ignore the subject accessories such as glasses, hats, or make up.

Advantages of Facial Recognition:

• Can identify individuals among the crowd.
• Will recognise full frontal faces.
• Can recognise faces from a 20 degree tilt as well.
• Security levels will be significantly improved
• The integration process is easy and flawless
• High accuracy allows to avoid false identification.
• Facial Recognition System is fully automated
• Time fraud will be excluded
  
  

Disadvantages of Facial Recognition:

• 
  
• Identification dependent on movements.
• Identification viewing angle of the face
• Difficulties with data processing and storing
• Troubles with images size and quality
  
  

So thats what sets both these new technologies apart. Some new phones like the Iphone X and LG G6 have facial recognition featured and the Samsung S7, Note 7 and Vivo X5Pro have the Iris Scanning feature on them and it sets them apart from other technologies used today.

Now that you've read about both the technologies which do you prefer? Iris Scanners or Facial Recognition? Do let us know via the poll and the comments below.

Source. 1, 2, 3, 4.