
How to Teach an Iris Scanner That the Eye It’s Looking at Is Dead - sohkamyung
https://spectrum.ieee.org/biomedical/imaging/how-to-teach-an-iris-scanner-that-the-eye-its-looking-at-is-dead
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RcouF1uZ4gsC
> The method we developed images the eye multiple times to see whether it’s
> actually responding to changes in brightness

Hopefully the person does not have Argyll Robertson pupils
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argyll_Robertson_pupil](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argyll_Robertson_pupil)
which is seen in late stage syphilis and causes the pupil not to react to the
light.

Also, another thing is that they should make sure that they train their system
with dark eyed people. Often the iris is very easy to identify if people with
light colored eyes. In people with dark eyes, it may be more difficult.

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JulianMorrison
Surely at that point it's correctly detecting they're "mostly dead"?

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mLuby
Only the bright-eyed and bushy-tailed may enter the meeting room.

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swyx
foiled again!

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dahartigan
Wouldn't it be trivial to detect a pulse with IR similar to how it's done with
other devices?

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SkyBelow
If I remember correctly (which may be wrong as it has been quite a few years),
veins in an eye are better than iris for many issues related to using eyes for
identification, but they can also reveal health information and so there are
more issues with storing and sharing the data needed to verify a person.

Now, one may point out that if both pieces of information were being kept
entirely private and were being secured with industry standard security this
different wouldn't matter. I'll leave the implications of this for the reader
to ponder upon.

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liability
I wonder if this could counter attacks using anesthesia (e.g. I shoot the
guard with my tranq gun and drag him over to the scanner, MGS2 style.)

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weinzierl
Does the eye still react to changes in brightness when a person is under
anesthesia? I have no idea.

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killjoywashere
Anesthesia, yes. Paralytics, maybe. Depends on what you're using.

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Timpy
This is an interesting update on the state of iris detection, but I don't
think "stolen eyeball" is a realistic threat model that you would have to
protect yourself against. Sure, detecting the difference between an authentic
iris and a photo is sensible, but if you have an actor willing to acquire
another person's eyeball I can't help but feel like a retina scanner won't be
the thing that ultimately foils their plans.

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meowface
It doesn't seem that implausible given a military (or terrorist) operation of
some kind. If you're raiding an important locked-down government facility,
armed to the teeth but unable to enter the facility with explosives, then it
seems reasonable to try forcing an employee to stand next to the scanner
(which this technology obviously wouldn't prevent), or knocking them out or
killing them and putting their face up to the scanner. Though ideally the
facility would use MFA (combining the retina scan with a passcode or
something).

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ebg13
> _The method we developed images the eye multiple times to see whether it’s
> actually responding to changes in brightness_

This is new? In 2019? Really? I find that so hard to believe.

> _the process takes about 3 seconds_

WHAAAAT? WHY?

> _For comparison, even iris-recognition systems that require just one
> snapshot usually take about that much time to make an identification._

I feel like Robin Williams fresh out of Jumanji yelling "WHAT YEAR IS IT?"

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probablybroken
A possibility would be that you might want to make multiple changes in light
level at random intervals to make it harder for e.g, a video being presented
to the camera that matches the input it would expect.

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Zenst
That would make sense, certainly what I would call a further stage of
development and currently they are doing viability and a basic level of
operation. So that would seem like a logical progression.

Coz they could add a brainwave scanner that measures the reaction to the input
of the eye, or have a higher resolution camera that measures blood flow being
active in the eye. Many avenues of addressing this. But as a previous comment
mentioned - generally easier to have a physical person next to the iris. After
all, not like there is a shortage of humans to do jobs in the World today.

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haolez
If I remember correctly, the eyes of live persons are always twitching a
little. It's relevant when, for example, a device needs to take a picture from
your retina. Maybe this should be used as an heuristic as well.

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swyx
saccade
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saccade](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saccade)

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gumby
Thanks, you’re destroying plot devices of thousands of films.

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jammygit
Preventative tech inspired by action/spy movies. Neat

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jacobush
How do you know it’s preventative... I have a feeling it already happened but
they won’t tell

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coldtea
Preventive by nature (tech used to prevent intrusions using such method), not
by timeline (tech used before the first such intrusion attempt to prevent it
from ever happening).

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sporkologist
IEEE lives up to its name

