Can Microsaccades Be Used for Biometrics?

Abstract

Human eyes are in constant motion. Even when we fix our gaze on a certain point, our eyes continue to move. When looking at a point, scientists have distinguished three different fixational eye movements (FEM)—microsaccades, drift and tremor. The main goal of this paper is to investigate one of these FEMs—microsaccades—as a source of information for biometric analysis. The paper argues why microsaccades are preferred for biometric analysis over the other two fixational eye movements. The process of microsaccades’ extraction is described. Thirteen parameters are defined for microsaccade analysis, and their derivation is given. A gradient algorithm was used to solve the biometric problem. An assessment of the weights of the different pairs of parameters in solving the biometric task was made.