Image and feature quality, image enhancement and feature extraction for ocular-vascular and facial recognition, and fusing ocular-vascular with facial and/or sub-facial information for biometric systems

IMAGE AND FEATURE QUALITY, IMAGE ENHANCEMENT AND FEATURE EXTRACTION FOR OCULAR-VASCULAR AND FACIAL RECOGNITION, AND FUSING OCULAR-VASCULAR WITH FACIAL AND/OR SUB-FACIAL INFORMATION FOR BIOMETRIC SYSTEMS A computer-implemented method and system is disclosed. In one aspect the method comprises: receiving an image of a facial region of a user, the facial region including an eye and an area surrounding the eye; processing the image to define an ocular image region including at least a portion of the eye in the image of the facial region, wherein the at least a portion of the eye comprises a scleral region of the eye; defining a plurality of periocular image regions each including at least a portion of the area surrounding the eye in the image of the facial region, wherein each of the periocular image regions is sized differently from the ocular image region, and wherein defining a particular one of the periocular image regions comprises: calculating a region height by multiplying a height of the ocular image region including the scleral region with a first numerical factor; calculating a region width by multiplying a width of the ocular image region including the scleral region with a second numerical factor; setting a height of the particular periocular image region equal to the calculated region height; and setting a width of the particular periocular image region equal to the calculated region width; calculating one or more biometric match scores based on the ocular image region and at least one of the periocular regions; and designating the image of the facial region as authentic or not authentic based on the one or more biometric match scores.