Learning the structure of the eye

Concurrent to understanding the concept of iris recognition, we’ll want to take a minute to study the eye itself. We’ll also want to take a look at some diseases and aging factors that can alter the effectiveness of obtaining an acceptable iris image.

Let’s start with an overview of the most common eye elements.

Viewing the major elements of the eye

The human eye is in a family called Camera Eyes. It is referenced as such because a camera has a lens that opens during image capture to allow light to pass through and enter the camera. Similar to a camera, the pupil regulates the amount of light that enters the eye.

As shown in the following screenshot, we see the major structures of the eye. The iris is the colored portion in the front of the eye, the pupil is in the center of the iris, and the retina is at the back of the eye:

Figure 7.3 – Anatomy of the human eye

The human eye...