This paper deals with the basics of iris, its properties and how it adds some advantageous features to recognize the correct person. In this paper we discuss the details regarding the information about how the iris is located, to distinguish it from other parts of the eye, how the scanner scans the whole pattern of the iris while enrolling and matching and how the scanned patterns are converted into 256 bytes of data so that it can be stored in the database. We compare the iris codes of the current person who wants to access the database and gives the matched results to the user accordingly.

As the iris recognition technology produces very low false rate when compared to the other biometrics results it is very preferable in many systems such as airports, banks, defense, etc.., where the security plays one of the major role. But in the case of fields where the database is huge, the comparison time is very high.

This paper includes the implementation of HAMMING-CUT-MATCHING algorithm which reduces the comparison time for matching the iris code with database so that we can use iris recognition in case of huge databases like voting system. As we have used hand geometry for verifying the identified person, it adds the security to the whole system. Finally this paper contains the applications of the combined features of the recognition of iris and verification of hand geometry in airport.

BIOMETRIC SYSTEMS

The determination, measuring, and codification of the unique characteristic traits that each of us is born with is known as the science of biometrics. Various forms of computer-based biometrics for personal authentication have been around for the past twenty years, but not until recently have some reached maturity and a quality/reliability that has enabled their widespread application. In the past, hand geometry enjoyed the advantage of very small templates (codes containing the biometric data), but with modern computers this is no longer the main issue and iris based solutions are steadily gaining ground.

Retinal, iris, and fingerprint recognition are mature technologies with the most reliable performance. Of the three methods, iris recognition is the least intrusive (unwanted involvement) with greater accuracy.

In addition to reliable performance some of the other advantages of using biometrics are:

High security: It is based on physical characteristics, which cannot be lost or stolen.

Certainty/accountability: A specific person, not just a holder of a token or somebody who knows a PIN/password, has been authenticated. Users need not worry about someone using their token or PIN code without their knowledge.

Ease of administration: The problems of handling forgotten PINs/passwords and lost/stolen keys or access cards are eliminated, the benefit is a lot of time and resources saved.