Optics and Lasers in Engineering 44 (2006) 1–24 Biometric iris recognition system using a fast and robust iris localization and alignment procedure Balaji Ganeshan a,Ã , Dhananjay Theckedath b , Rupert Young a , Chris Chatwin a a Department of Engineering and Design, School of Science and Technology, University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9QT, UK b Biomedical Engineering Department, D.J. Sanghvi College of Engineering, University of Mumbai, Mumbai-400 056, India Received 4 January 2005; received in revised form 4 March 2005; accepted 22 March 2005 Available online 15 June 2005 Abstract Iris recognition as a biometric technique for personal identification and verification is examined. The motivation for this stems from the observation that the human iris provides a unique structure suitable for non-invasive biometric assessment. In particular the irises are as distinct as fingerprints or patterns of retinal blood vessels and the appearance of the iris is amenable to remote examination. In this paper we have used a database of iris images of more than 100 people, which was used in the implementation of the iris recognition software. The software developed uses a novel technique of localization, alignment, pattern matching of the irises and finally the decision regarding the degree of match. r 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Iris; LoG filter; Laplacian pyramid; Biometrics and pattern recognition 1. Introduction Biometrics deals with the uniqueness of an individual arising from their physiological or behavioral characteristics for the purpose of personal identification. ARTICLE IN PRESS 0143-8166/$ - see front matter r 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.optlaseng.2005.03.010 Ã Corresponding author. Tel.: +44 1273872642. E-mail address: b.ganeshan@sussex.ac.uk (B. Ganeshan).