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Eye Features and Anatomy

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Encyclopedia of Biometrics

Definition

The human eye is one of the most remarkable sensory systems. Leonardo da Vinci was acutely aware of its prime significance: “The eye, which is termed the window of the soul, is the chief organ whereby the senso comune can have the most complete and magnificent view of the infinite works of nature” [1]. The human being gathers most of its information on the external environment by its eyes and thus relies on sight more than on any other sense, with the eye being the most sensitive organ that we have. Besides its consideration as a window to the soul, the eye can indeed serve as a window to the identity of an individual. It offers unique features for the application of identification technology. Both the highly detailed texture of the iris and the fundus blood vessel pattern are unique to every person, providing suitable traits for biometric recognition.

Anatomy of the Human Eye

The adult eyeball, often referred to as a spherical globe, is only approximately spherical in...

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Irsch, K., Guyton, D.L. (2015). Eye Features and Anatomy. In: Li, S.Z., Jain, A.K. (eds) Encyclopedia of Biometrics. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-7488-4_9172

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