Patent Description:
At present, techniques for capturing iris images of an individual have been more and more applied to the field of personal identification due to the uniqueness of individual irises. Existing methods for acquiring an image of the iris need be achieved with specialised iris acquisition apparatus. However, during the acquisition of an iris image of a use, the iris acquisition apparatus requires the user to fully cooperate with the apparatus, resulting in an increased difficulty and lower user experience in using the iris acquisition apparatus.

Document <CIT> discloses a portable, hand held iris imaging system for capturing iris images that may be used in biometric identification. The system is constructed using two separate but coupled subsystems. A first subsystem augments the underlying functionality of the second subsystem. The first subsystem uses an iris camera to capture iris images. A tunable optical element positioned between the subject and the iris camera focuses light reflected from the subject's eye onto the iris camera. A controller coordinates the capture of the iris image with the second subsystem. The second subsystem captures face images of the subject, which are provided to a display through a computer. The user interface is overlaid over the face images to provide visual feedback regarding how the system can be properly repositioned to capture iris images. The system has a portable form factor so that it may be easily operated. The system does not include a technique for an efficient computation of the radius of the iris.

Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a method and a device for acquiring an iris image and a device for identifying an iris, according to the independent claims, so as to be able to accurately acquire the iris image without high cooperation of a user with an iris acquisition apparatus.

According to a first aspect of embodiments of the present disclosure, there is provided a method for acquiring an iris image. The method is defined in claims <NUM> to <NUM>.

According to a second aspect of embodiments of the present disclosure, there is provided a mobile phone for acquiring an iris image. The mobile phone is defined in claims <NUM> to <NUM>.

According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the technical solution may have the following advantageous effects. The shooting parameter for shooting the iris is determined based on the acquired image including the eye site. As the image including the eye site may be acquired by various methods, for example, acquired by a common visible light shooting method. As a result, the above described method may be able to shoot the eye site of a user normally standing without requiring the user to adhere his or her eye to a specific position or to closely cooperate with an iris acquisition apparatus, thereby being able to determine the shooting parameter for shooting the iris. The above described method may be able to accurately acquire the iris image without close cooperation by the user, thus improving the user's experience effect. The invention according to the independent claims allows an efficient computation of the radius of the iris on a mobile phone.

It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are illustrative and explanatory only and are not restrictive of the disclosure, within the scope of the independent claims.

Reference will now be made in detail to illustrative embodiments, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. The implementations set forth in the following description of illustrative embodiments do not represent all implementations consistent with the disclosure. Instead, they are merely examples of apparatuses and methods consistent with aspects related to the disclosure as recited in the appended claims.

The present disclosure provides in embodiments a method for acquiring an iris image. The method is used to acquire and identify the iris image and used in a device for acquiring the iris image. The method is performed by a mobile phone having an image acquisition or photographic function. As shown in <FIG>, the method includes the following steps S101 to S104.

In the step S101, an image including an eye site is acquired. In this context, the phrase eye site will be understood as the region of an individual's body where the eye is found, such as the face or a smaller region of the face.

In an embodiment, the step S101 is implemented by shooting the eye site to obtain the image including the eye site. In a practical implementation, after an instruction of acquiring the iris image is received, the AdaBoost classifier may be used to rapidly detect a general area of the eye site, and shoot the eye site within a shooting region once or multiple times, so as to obtain one or more images including the eye site. In such an implementation, a visible light camera may be used for shooting, to obtain the image including the eye site, or any camera enabled device having a photography function.

In the step S102, an eye position parameter in the image is determined by subjecting the image to image recognition or identification.

According to the invention, the step S102 is implemented by determining an eye position in the image by subjecting the image to the image identification; and determining an eye central position and an eyeball radius in the image based on the eye position. That is, the eye position parameter in the image includes the eye central position and the eyeball radius, in other words, a shooting parameter for shooting the iris image can be determined just with such two parameters. The image including the eye site is identified by a radial symmetry transform (RST) method, which may detect a circle rapidly by calculating each point from multiple images to obtain a gradient, and subjecting all points in such a radial direction to cumulative voting reversely such that the most votes are finally cumulated at the eye central position, thereby obtaining the eye position parameter.

In another embodiment, an eye position in the image may be determined by determining a region where the eye is in the image by a self-adaptive AdaBoost algorithm. Based on the eye position, an eye central position and an eye radius in the image is determined by determining the eye central position and the eye radius in the image by radial symmetry transform (RST) within the region where the eye is.

In the step S103, a shooting parameter for shooting an iris is determined based on the eye position parameter in the image.

In an embodiment, the shooting parameter for the camera function, including a focal point position, a focal length, brightness and contrast, and the like, is set based on the eye position parameter obtained in the step S102, to be capable of obtaining a complete and clear iris image with an appropriate size. For example, based on the image including an eye site and acquired by shooting with a visible light camera, after the eye central position is determined, a distance to the eyeball central position is determined as <NUM> and current ambient brightness is determined as <NUM> cd/m<NUM>, then after the focal point (the eye central position) is captured, the shooting parameter for shooting the iris may be set as <NUM>× of the focal length, -<NUM> of the brightness and <NUM> of the contrast.

In the step S <NUM>, the iris is shot based on the shooting parameter, to obtain the iris image.

In an embodiment, a device for shooting the iris may be a near-infrared camera, as a result, the shooting parameter determined in the step S103 may be a near-infrared shooting parameter applicable for the near-infrared camera. Therefore, the step S104 may be implemented by shooting the iris based on the near-infrared shooting parameter to obtain the iris image. The iris image obtained by the near-infrared shooting technique is of an improved clarity.

The method according to embodiments of the present disclosure, the shooting parameter for shooting the iris is determined based on the acquired image including the eye site. As the image including the eye site may be acquired by various methods, for example, acquired by a common visible light shooting method. As a result, the above described method may be able to shoot the eye site of a user normally standing, without requiring the user to adhere his or her eye to a specific position or to closely cooperate with an iris acquisition apparatus, thereby being able to determine the shooting parameter for shooting the iris. The above described method is able to accurately acquire the iris image without close cooperation by the user, thus improving the user's experience.

In an embodiment, when the step S101 is implemented by shooting the eye site to obtain the image including the eye site, the above described method has the following advantageous effects. The shooting parameter for shooting the iris is determined based on the acquired image including the eye site. The image including the eye site may be acquired by a common visible light shooting method. As a result, the image including the eye site can be shot when a user stands normally, instead of adhering his or her eye to a specific position or closely cooperating with a shooting apparatus, thereby being able to determine the shooting parameter for shooting the iris. The above described method is able to accurately acquire the iris image without close cooperation by the user, thus improving the user's experience.

According to a second aspect of embodiments of the present disclosure, corresponding to the above method for acquiring the iris image, there is provided a device for acquiring an iris image. As shown in <FIG>, the device includes: an first acquiring module <NUM>, configured to acquire an image including an eye site; a first determining module <NUM>, configured to determine an eyeball position parameter in the image by subjecting the image to image identification; a second determining module <NUM>, configured to determine a shooting parameter for shooting an iris based on the eyeball position parameter in the image; and a second acquiring module <NUM>, configured to shoot the iris based on the shooting parameter, to obtain the iris image.

According to the invention, as shown in <FIG>, the first determining module <NUM> includes: a first determining sub-module <NUM>, configured to determine an eye position in the image by subjecting the image to the image identification; and a second determining sub-module <NUM>, configured to determine an eye central position and an eye radius in the image based on the eye position.

In an embodiment, as shown in <FIG>, the second determining module <NUM> may include a third determining sub-module <NUM>, configured to determine a near-infrared shooting parameter for shooting the iris based on the eye position parameter in the image; and the second acquiring module <NUM> may include a shooting sub-module <NUM> configured to shoot the iris based on the near-infrared shooting parameter, to obtain the iris image.

In an embodiment, as shown in <FIG>, the first acquiring module <NUM> may include: an acquiring sub-module <NUM>, configured to shoot the eye site, so as to obtain the image including the eye site.

In an embodiment, the first determining sub-module <NUM> is further configured to determine a region where the eye is in the image by a self-adaptive AdaBoost algorithm.

According to the invention, the second determining sub-module <NUM> is further configured to determine the eye central position and the eye radius in the image by radial symmetry transform (RST) within the region where the eye is.

According to a third aspect of embodiments of the present disclosure, there is provided a device for identifying an iris. As shown in <FIG>, the device may include: a first shooting component <NUM>, configured to shoot an eye site to obtain an image including the eye site; a processing chip <NUM>, configured to subject the image to image identification to determine an eyeball position parameter in the image and determine a shooting parameter for shooting an iris based on the eye position parameter in the image; and a second shooting component <NUM>, configured to shoot the iris based on the shooting parameter to obtain the iris image and transmit the iris image to the processing chip <NUM>, wherein the processing chip <NUM> is further configured to identify the iris image to obtain iris feature information and determine whether the iris feature information is matched with predetermined iris feature information.

In an embodiment, the first shooting component <NUM> is a visible light camera; and the second shooting component <NUM> is a near-infrared camera.

In an embodiment, the first shooting component <NUM> and the second shooting component <NUM> may be the same near-infrared camera.

According to a fourth aspect of embodiments of the present disclosure, there is provided a device for acquiring an iris image. The device may include: a processor; and a memory for storing an instruction executable by the processor, wherein the processor is configured to acquire an image including an eye site; determine an eye position parameter in the image by subjecting the image to image identification; determine a shooting parameter for shooting an iris based on the eye position parameter in the image; and shoot the iris based on the shooting parameter, to obtain the iris image.

As shown in <FIG>, there is provided a device <NUM> for acquiring an iris image according to an illustrative embodiment. The device <NUM> may be a mobile phone, a computer, a digital broadcast terminal, a message receiving and sending device, a gaming console, a tablet, a medical device, exercise equipment, a personal digital assistant, a vehicle mobile terminal, and the like.

The front camera and/or the rear camera may receive an external multimedia datum while the device <NUM> is in an operation mode, such as a photographing mode or a video mode.

The audio component <NUM> is configured to output and/or input audio signals. For example, the audio component <NUM> includes a microphone ("MIC") configured to receive an external audio signal when the device <NUM> is in an operation mode, such as a call mode, a recording mode, and a voice recognition mode. The received audio signal may be further stored in the memory <NUM> or transmitted via the communication component <NUM>. In some embodiments, the audio component <NUM> further includes a speaker to output audio signals.

The communication component <NUM> is configured to facilitate communication, wired or wirelessly, between the device <NUM> and other devices. The device <NUM> can access a wireless network based on a communication standard, such as WiFi, <NUM>, or <NUM>, or a combination thereof. In one illustrative embodiment, the communication component <NUM> receives a broadcast signal or broadcast associated information from an external broadcast management system via a broadcast channel. In one illustrative embodiment, the communication component <NUM> further includes a near field communication (NFC) module to facilitate short-range communications. For example, the NFC module may be implemented based on a radio frequency identification (RFID) technology, an infrared data association (IrDA) technology, an ultra-wideband (UWB) technology, a Bluetooth (BT) technology, and other technologies.

In illustrative embodiments, the device <NUM> may be implemented with one or more application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), digital signal processors (DSPs), digital signal processing devices (DSPDs), programmable logic devices (PLDs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), controllers, micro-controllers, microprocessors, or other electronic components, for performing the above described methods for acquiring the iris image.

In illustrative embodiments, there is also provided a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium including instructions, such as included in the memory <NUM>, executable by the processor <NUM> in the device <NUM>, for performing the above-described methods. For example, the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium may be a ROM, a RAM, a CD-ROM, a magnetic tape, a floppy disc, an optical data storage device, and the like.

Claim 1:
A method for acquiring an iris image, performed by a mobile phone having an image acquisition function, the method comprising:
shooting (S101) a first image including an eye site, wherein the eye site is a region where an eye is;
determining (S102) an eye position parameter in the first image by subjecting the image to image identification;
determining (S103) a shooting parameter for shooting an iris, based on the eye position parameter in the image; and
shooting (S104) the iris based on the shooting parameter, to obtain a second image that is the iris image,
wherein determining an eye position parameter in the image by subjecting the image to image identification comprises:
determining an eye position in the image by subjecting the image to image identification; and
determining an eye central position and an eye radius in the image based on the eye position using radial symmetry transform (RST) within the eye site.