睫毛检测是虹膜识别预处理阶段的一个重要环节，本文提出一种基于改进蚁群算法的睫毛提取方法。该方法首先通过引入睫毛区域内、外方向因子使得人工蚂蚁能快速聚集到睫毛边缘，并且通过采取全局和局部两种策略来对信息素进行更新，然后使用 OTSU算法根据所得图像的信息素浓度把图像分割成睫毛边缘和非睫毛边缘两部分。最后，对分割出的睫毛边缘进行整合、除噪，得到最终的睫毛。实验结果表明：该方法提取睫毛的效果较其他相关算法有明显的提高；并且当人工蚂蚁间距取约 25 pixels的时候，算法既能保证睫毛检测的速度又能保证睫毛检测的效果。

Eyelash detection is an important step during the period of iris recognition preprocessing. An eyelash extraction algorithm based on improved ant colony algorithm is proposed. Firstly, by introducing direction factor of inside the eyelash region and outside the eyelash region, the artificial ant can gather to the eyelash-edge quickly, increasing pheromone intensity of eyelash-edge and decreasing that of non-eyelash-edge. At the same time, global and local strategies are taken respectively to update pheromone. After that, the OTSU algorithm is used to segment eyelash edge according to the pheromone intensity of image. Finally, by integrating the eyelash-edge and deleting the noise, the eyelash can be obtained. Experimental results show that, compared with other concerned algorithms, the effect of the proposed method is better than that of others, and when the distance between artificial ants is about 25 pixels, the algorithm can not only ensure eyelash detection speed but guarantee the detection effect.