irisafbeelding

Irisafbeelding is a Dutch term that refers to a digital image of an iris. In everyday use it most often denotes an image of the iris of the eye, but it can also describe a photograph of the iris flower. The word is used in ophthalmology, vision science, and biometric applications.

Eye iris imaging is performed with specialized cameras, frequently using near-infrared illumination to reveal fine texture patterns while minimizing iris color variation and pupil dilation. Techniques include slit-lamp based imaging and dedicated iris cameras. The resulting images show the iris structure: crypts, furrows, and color patches, with the pupil and surrounding sclera also visible.

In biometrics, iris recognition systems rely on high-resolution infrared images to extract unique iris textures. After segmentation, the texture is encoded into a binary iris code, enabling rapid matching against large databases using metrics such as Hamming distance. The method is known for high accuracy and stability under varying lighting.

In medicine, iris images help document anatomy and detect disease such as iris atrophy, nevi, synechiae, or inflammatory conditions. They can be part of digital ophthalmology records or research databases. Iris images are also used in education and for botanical purposes when photographing iris flowers.

Privacy and data protection considerations apply because iris data are highly identifying. Access is typically restricted, and compliant storage and consent are required. Common iris image datasets used in research include CASIA-Iris, ND-Iris-Template, and UBIRIS.