Real-time iris recognition by a rotation spreading neural network

We previously proposed a rotation spreading neural network (R-SAN net). This neural net can recognize the orientation of an object irrespective of its shape, and its shape irrespective of its orientation. The characteristic of the R-SAN net is to spread the information of axis orientation of the object on surrounding space by spreading weight that has similar tuning characteristics to axis orientation neurons in the parietal cortex. The R-SAN net is suitable for the shape and orientation recognition of a concentric circular pattern, because it uses polar conversion. Previously, the validity of this neural net for learning and recollection of human faces had been demonstrated by off-line processing. In the present study, we used iris images instead of face images for the input patterns of the neural network. We attempted real-time individual identification by the iris patterns. In the recognition experiment, the R-SAN net was able to simultaneously recognize the orientation and shape of iris images of learned persons. We suggest application of the R-SAN net as an iris recognition system.