The purpose of this study is to identify the common causes of failure to acquire (FTA) in iris recognition technology. For the study, data that has been previously collected was examined and sorted into the areas of failure to acquire, the most common error, as well as interaction times. The goal of this process is to understand the reasons for these errors and how to correct them through efficiency, throughput, and security.

1. SUCCESS AND FAILURE RATE OF IRIS RECOGNITION
The purpose of this study is to identify the common causes of failure to acquire (FTA) in iris recognition technology. For the study, data
that has been previously collected was examined and sorted into the areas of failure to acquire, the most common error, as well as
interaction times. The goal of this process is to understand the reasons for these errors and how to correct them through efficiency,
throughput, and security.
Max Charlot, Chris Livingston, Michael Brockly, Stephen Elliott
Overview
Number of Interactions 20 21 22 23 24 25
Number of people who finished
within the given interaction
22 17 2 4 2 50
Table of Interaction Data
Cause of
Failure
Left Eye Right Eye
Complete
Failure
Complete
Success
Number of
Failures
39/2231 539/2231 99/2231 677/2231
Percentage
of Failures
1.75% 24.16% 4.43% 30.35%
Success
Rates
98.25% 75.84% N/A 69.65%
1.75%
24.16%
4.43%
69.66%
Failure Rates
FTA-Left Eye
FTA-Right Eye
Complete
Failure
Complete Failure – Failure to acquire either eye
Complete Success – Successful recognition of both eyes
FTA- Failure to Acquire
What are the most common
causes of FTA in iris recognition
technology?
Data will be collected and analyzed pertaining to:
• Which eye had the most difficulty being captured?
• Do users need the full 25 interactions to be captured?
• What is the most common error?
Analyzed Data
• The most common error was the single eye capture of the
right eye
• The most common eye to have problems capturing was the
right eye with close to a 5:1 ratio
• The data showed that 50 out of 97 users required the whole
25 attempts to obtain acceptable results
Real World Relevance
• Can improve efficiency (in terms of error) of passengers in airports
• Can provide more accurate identifications, thus reducing time spent on
interacting with the iris scanner
• Can provide secure and convenient ways to enter secure locations
• With reduced errors, throughput in airports could be increased, pushing
people in and out of airports faster and easier
Data was acquired from a large scale iris
data conducted by BSPA labs. The Iris scan
confirmation tracker is how the operators
organized their results.
Findbiometrics.com
Tarrantcounty.com
Iris scan confirmation
tracker