# Post-mortem Human Iris Recognition

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1809.00208 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/1809.00208/

## Key facts

- Cited by 4 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 1 Sep 2018.

## Built on by (most cited first, 4 of 4)

- [Deep Learning for Iris Recognition: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.05866/) (2022)
- [Human Saliency-Driven Patch-based Matching for Interpretable Post-mortem Iris Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2208.03138/) (2022)
- [Interpretable Deep Learning-Based Forensic Iris Segmentation and Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.00849/) (2021)
- [Beyond Mortality: Advancements in Post-Mortem Iris Recognition through Data Collection and Computer-Aided Forensic Examination](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.26976/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

This paper presents a unique analysis of post-mortem human iris recognition. Post-mortem human iris images were collected at the university mortuary in three sessions separated by approximately 11 hours, with the first session organized from 5 to 7 hours after demise. Analysis performed for four independent iris recognition methods shows that the common claim of the iris being useless for biometric identification soon after death is not entirely true. Since the pupil has a constant and neutral dilation after death (the so called "cadaveric position"), this makes the iris pattern perfectly visible from the standpoint of dilation. We found that more than 90% of irises are still correctly recognized when captured a few hours after death, and that serious iris deterioration begins approximately 22 hours later, since the recognition rate drops to a range of 13.3-73.3% (depending on the method used) when the cornea starts to be cloudy. There were only two failures to enroll (out of 104 images) observed for only a single method (out of four employed in this study). These findings show that the dynamics of post-mortem changes to the iris that are important for biometric identification are much more moderate than previously believed. To the best of our knowledge, this paper presents the first experimental study of how iris recognition works after death, and we hope that these preliminary findings will stimulate further research in this area.