Periocular biometrics: A survey

Periocular region is the feature rich region around the eye which may include features like eyelids, eyelashes, eyebrows, tear duct, eye shape, skin texture and many more. Periocular region based authentication system is a good trade-off between face and iris based biometric authentication systems as they need high user cooperation. This paper provides a comprehensive survey of periocular biometrics and a deep insight of various aspects such as utility of periocular region as a stand-alone modality, periocular region and its fusion with iris, application of periocular region in smart phone authentication and the role of periocular region in soft biometric classification etc. The paper also provides an outlook over possible future research in the area of periocular biometrics.