APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR IDENTIFYING INDIVIDUALS THROUGH THEIR RETINAL VASCULATURE PATTERNS

摘要

ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSUREMethod for identifying a person comprises obtaining his ret-inal vasculature intercept pattern by causing the person's eye tobecome fixated, scanning the fixated eye with a light source arr-anged in a selected pattern, and detecting that portion of the lightsource pattern which is reflected off of the person's retina, there-by locating each intercept of the light source pattern with ablood vessel. The intercept pattern thus obtained is stored forfuture recall and comparison with a subsequently obtained patternfor verifying identirication of the person. The apparatus compri-ses a fixation light source for fixating the person's eye, a flyingspot light source having 360 individual light-emitting diodes arr-anged in a dual concentric circular pattern and having a lightsource driver arranged for illuminating and then darkening each ofthe light-emitting diodes in a rapid sequential manner for scanningthe eye, and a photodetector for detecting the reflected portion oftbe light source pattern. A digital computer activates the flyingspot light source and the photodetector in synchronization, recordsand stores the intercept pattern thus obtained, and then comparesthe intercept pattern with a subsequently obtained pattern.