Identity verification based on vessel matching from fundus images

In this paper, a novel method for retina verification based on minutiae features is proposed. The method uses the vessel direction information for improved matching robustness, and is thus suitable for cases where the overlapping region of the matched images is limited. Verification achieves a low false rejection ratio (FRR) even when the retinal area overlap is as low as 25% of the total area. The improved robustness is achieved using a new vessel-directional feature descriptor called the principal bifurcation orientation (PBO). The performance of the method is evaluated in terms of FRR and equal error rate (EER). In particular, the EER of 1.53% for the the difficult macula-papilla match with as little as 25% overlapping area is achieved.