# Quantum Biometrics with Retinal Photon Counting

## TL;DR

This paper proposes a novel quantum biometric identification method leveraging the quantum properties of retinal photon detection, achieving high security and low false positive/negative rates by modeling the eye as a quantum filter.

## Contribution

It introduces a secure quantum biometric technique based on retinal photon counting and quantum parameter estimation, a novel approach in biometric security.

## Key findings

- False positive rate can approach 10^{-10}
- False negative rate can approach 10^{-4}
- Security relies on quantum measurement physics

## Abstract

It is known that the eye's scotopic photodetectors, rhodopsin molecules and their associated phototransduction mechanism leading to light perception, are efficient single photon counters. We here use the photon counting principles of human rod vision to propose a secure quantum biometric identification based on the quantum-statistical properties of retinal photon detection. The photon path along the human eye until its detection by rod cells is modeled as a filter having a specific transmission coefficient. Precisely determining its value from the photodetection statistics registered by the conscious observer is a quantum parameter estimation problem that leads to a quantum secure identification method. The probabilities for false positive and false negative identification of this biometric technique can readily approach $10^{-10}$ and $10^{-4}$, respectively. The security of the biometric method can be further quantified by the physics of quantum measurements. An impostor must be able to perform quantum thermometry and quantum magnetometry with energy resolution better than $10^{-9}\hbar$, in order to foil the device by non-invasively monitoring the biometric activity of a user.