九年间追踪儿童虹膜识别稳定性，发现图像质量比时间影响更大。
Nine Years of Pediatric Iris Recognition: Evidence for Biometric Permanence
- 用纵向数据分离年龄、发育与时间对虹膜匹配的影响
- 九年内误拒率低于0.5%，但不同算法老化表现差异明显
- 图像质量与瞳孔变化是主要瓶颈，适合关注生物识别长期可用性的人看
尽管印度的Aadhaar和加拿大的NEXUS等国家身份计划已广泛采用儿童虹膜识别，但其生物特征永久性仍不明确。本研究对276名4至12岁儿童进行长达九年的纵向评估，共采集18,318张近红外虹膜图像，每半年一次。通过线性混合效应模型分析商业系统（VeriEye）与开源系统（OpenIris），控制图像质量与生理因素，分离出注册年龄、发育成熟与时间流逝的影响。两种匹配器在儿科校准阈值下，九年内的错误非匹配率均低于0.5%，接近成人水平。然而算法表现差异显著：VeriEye的性能下降实为不同入学队列发育混淆所致，并非真实模板老化；而OpenIris则显示真实老化趋势，八年间退化约0.5个标准差。图像质量与瞳孔扩张稳定性主导长期表现，瞳孔变化影响达3.0–3.5个标准差，远超时间因素。9.4%的受试者因持续成像困难导致失败，而非随时间累积。结果支持延长保守重注册周期，高质注册且年龄7岁以上者可考虑10–12年有效期限，证实虹膜识别在儿童期至青春期仍具可行性，前提是严格控制成像条件。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Biometric permanence in pediatric populations remains poorly understood despite widespread deployment of iris recognition for children in national identity programs such as India's Aadhaar and trusted traveler programs like Canada's NEXUS. This study presents a comprehensive longitudinal evaluation of pediatric iris recognition, analyzing 276 subjects enrolled between ages 4-12 and followed up to nine years through adolescence. Using 18,318 near-infrared iris images acquired semi-annually, we evaluated commercial (VeriEye) and open-source (OpenIris) systems through linear mixed-effects models that disentangle enrollment age, developmental maturation, and elapsed time while controlling for image quality and physiological factors. False non-match rates remained below 0.5% across the nine-year period for both matchers using pediatric-calibrated thresholds, approaching adult-level performance. However, we reveal significant algorithm-dependent temporal behaviors: VeriEye's apparent decline reflects developmental confounding across enrollment cohorts rather than genuine template aging, while OpenIris exhibits modest but genuine temporal aging (0.5 standard deviations over eight years). Image quality and pupil dilation constancy dominated longitudinal performance, with dilation effects reaching 3.0-3.5 standard deviations, substantially exceeding temporal factors. Failures concentrated in 9.4% of subjects with persistent acquisition challenges rather than accumulating with elapsed time, confirming acquisition conditions as the primary limitation. These findings justify extending conservative re-enrollment policies, potentially to 10-12 year validity periods for high-quality enrollments at ages 7+, and demonstrate iris recognition remains viable throughout childhood and adolescence with proper imaging control.
Thank you to arXiv for use of its open access interoperability. PaperDance 不是 arXiv 官方产品；中文卡片由大模型生成，请以原文为准。