Research

SELECTED PROJECTS

Biometrics to Improve Standoff Iris Recognition Systems    
·  Developed machine learning algorithms to improve the iris recognition for gaze angle and pupil dilation.
·  Developed computer vision and deep learning algorithms for segmentation, gaze estimation, and frontal projection.
·  Built a data collection platform and software protocols to capture standoff iris images.
·  Collected a large standoff iris dataset with 450,000+ images from 113 subjects.
·  Investigated the effect of corneal refraction, limbus occlusion, and 3D iris shape on iris recognition.     

Diabetic Retinopathy Detection Using Smartphone-Based Retinal Imaging  
·  Developed machine learning solutions for disease prediction such as Diabetic Retinopathy (DR) on retina.
·  Designed deep learning frameworks for DR detection and optic disc localization.
·  Developed pre-processing and image enhancement algorithms.
·  Tested several smartphone-based devices such as iExaminer, D-Eye, iNview, and Peek Retina for DR.
·  Collected retina images using smartphone-based devices and generated a synthetic dataset.     

Smartphone-Based Portable Invisible Data Matrix Imaging Systems          
·  Designed an portable invisible data matrix reader for smartphones using 3D printing, lens, and filter.
·  Developed computer vision algorithms to detect and decode invisible data matrix images.
·  Developed an android application for authentication of the invisible data matrix.

Collaborative Solutions to Smart Camera Networks 
·  Designed computer vision algorithms for target detection, localization, and tracking algorithms.
·  Designed fault detection, correction, and tolerance algorithm for target localization.
·  Analyzed coverage estimation in the presence of occlusions and proposed a closed-form solution.                                                                                

EXTERNAL FUNDING:

Title: Improving Performance of Standoff Iris Recognition Systems Using Deep Learning Frameworks
Funding Agency: NSF-SaTC                                                                                                               Dates: 2019 - 2024
Role: Principal Investigator                                                                                                       Total Budget: $ 259,316

Title: Development of Retina Imaging System using Smartphones
Funding Agency: NIH NIGMS/INBRE                                                                                              Dates: 2018 - 2020
Role: Principal Investigator                                                                                                      Total Budget: $ 291,800

Title: MRI: Acquisition of a High-Performance Computing System for UCA
Funding Agency: NSF-CNS                                                                                                              Dates: 2017 - 2020
Role: Senior Personnel                                                                                                             Total Budget: $105,084

Title: Development of Invisible Data Matrix Reader System with Smartphones 
Funding Agency: TUBITAK (Turkish NSF)                                                                                    Dates: 2014 - 2016
Role: Principal Investigator                                                                                                      Total Budget: $67,000

 

JOURNAL PUBLICATIONS:

1.   M. Karakaya, “Iris-Ocular-Periocular: Towards more accurate Biometrics for Off-angle Images” Journal of Electronic Imaging, 30(3), 033035, 2021.

2.   E. Jalilian, M. Karakaya and A. Uhl, “CNN Based Off-angle Iris Segmentation and Recognition” ” IET Biometrics, 10(5), pp. 518-535 2021.

3.  M. Karakaya and R. E. Hacisoftaoglu “Comparison of Smartphone-based Retinal Imaging Systems for Diabetic Retinopathy Detection using Deep Learning” BMC Bioinformatics, 21(Suppl 4):259, 2020.

4.  R. E. Hacisoftaoglu, M. Karakaya and Ahmed B. Sallam, “Deep Learning Framework for Diabetic Retinopathy Detection with Smartphone-based Retinal Imaging Systems” Pattern Recognition Letters, vol. 135, pp. 409-417, 2020.

5.  M. Karakaya and E. T. Celik “Effect of Pupil Dilation on Off-angle Iris Recognition” Journal of Electronic Imaging, 28(3), 033022, June 2019.

6.  M. Karakaya, “A study of how gaze angle affects the performance of iris recognition” Pattern Recognition Letters, vol. 82, Part 2, pp. 132-143, Oct. 2016.

7.   M. Karakaya and H. Qi, “Collaborative Localization in Visual Sensor Networks”, ACM Transactions on Sensor Networks, vol. 10, issue 2, article 18, pp. 1-24, Jan. 2014.

8.   N. Trivedi, J. S Ramahi, M. Karakaya, D. Howell, R. A Kerekes and D. J Solecki, “Leading-process actomyosin coordinates organelle positioning and adhesion receptor dynamics in radially migrating cerebellar granule neurons”, Neural Development, 9:26, 2014.

9.  M. Karakaya and H. Qi, “Coverage Estimation for Crowded Targets in Visual Sensor Networks”, ACM Transactions on Sensor Networks, vol. 8, issue 3, article 26, pp. 1-22, 2012.

10.  M. Karakaya and H. Qi, “Distributed Target Localization using a Progressive Certainty Map in Visual Sensor Networks”, Journal of Ad Hoc Networks, vol. 9, pp. 576–590, 2011.

11.  R. A. Kerekes, R. A. Martins, D. Davis, M. Karakaya, S. S. Gleason and M. A. Dyer, “Automated Tracing of Horizontal Neuron Processes During Retinal Development”, Neurochemical Research, vol. 36, no. 4, pp. 583-593, 2011.

12. R. A. P. Martins, D. Davis, R. A. Kerekes, J. Zhang, I. T. Bayazitov, D. Hiler, M. Karakaya, S. Frase, S. S. Gleason, S. S. Zakharenko, D. A. Johnson, and M. A. Dyer, “Retinoblastoma (Rb) regulates laminar dendritic arbor reorganization in retinal horizontal neurons”, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 108: 21111-21116, 2011.

 

CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS:

1.  M. Karakaya and R. S. Aygun, “Retinal Biomarkers for Detecting Diabetic Retinopaty Using Smartphone-Based Deep Learning Frameworks” IEEE ICASSP 2023.

2.  D. Don,  R. S. Aygun, and M. Karakaya , “Multimodal Framework for Detection of Very Small Objects” ACM ICMVA 2023.

3.  H. Palta, T. Omoteso and M. Karakaya, “Blink Detection for Off-Angle Iris Images using Deep Learning”, SPIE Defence and Commercial Sensing 2023.

4.  D. Chavarro and M. Karakaya, “Off-Angle Iris Recognition using Single and Multiple Deep Learning Frameworks”, SPIE Defence and Commercial Sensing 2023.

5.  M. Karakaya, R.S. Aygun, and A. Sallam, “Collaborative Deep Learning for Privacy Preserving Diabetic Retinopathy Detection” IEEE EMBC, pp. 2181-2184, 2022.

6.  A. Fagbemi, R. Aygun, M. Karakaya and N. Sahin, “Video Alignment of Lecture Notes Missing Corners,” IEEE International Conference on Information Reuse and Integration for Data Science (IRI), 2022.

7.  E. Jalilian, G. Wimmer, M. Karakaya and A. Uhl, “Deep Learning based Off-angle Iris Recognition”, IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, & Signal Processing (ICASSP), 2022. 

8.   K. Diab and M. Karakaya, “CNN-based Gaze Estimation for Off-angle Iris Images”, IEEE Southeast Conference 2022.

9.   S. Phillips and M. Karakaya, “Effects of Distance and Gaze Angle on CNN-Based Standoff Iris Recognition”, IEEE Southeast Conference 2022.

10.   I. Ghandour and M. Karakaya, “Binary vs. Multi-Class Segmentation for Off-angle Iris Images using Deep Learning Frameworks”, SPIE Defense and Commercial Sensing 2022.

11.   J. Kota and M. Karakaya, “Improving Off-Angle Iris Recognition Using Iris Quadrant Masking”, IEEE Southeast Conference 2022.

12.   M. Nasajpour, M. Karakaya, S. Pouriyeh, and R. Parizi, “Federated Transfer Learning for Diabetic Retinopathy Detection Using CNN Architectures”, IEEE Southeast Conf. 2022.

13.   H. Palta and M. Karakaya, “Image Quality Assessment of Smartphone-Based Retinal Imaging Systems”, SPIE Defence and Commercial Sensing 2022.

14.  M. Karakaya, “Fragile Bits in Off-angle Iris Recognition”, IEEE International Workshop on Biometrics and Forensics (IWBF), pp. 1-6, 2021.

15.   E. Elrich and M. Karakaya, “Comparison of Elliptical Unwrapping and Frontal Projection for Off-angle Iris Normalization”, SPIE Defense and Commercial Sensing Conference 2021.

16.   E. Jalilian, M. Karakaya and A. Uhl, “End-to-end Off-angle Iris Recognition Using CNN Based Iris Segmentation”, International Conference of the Biometrics Special Interest Group (BIOSIG), 2020.

17.   D. Kim, R. E. Hacisoftaoglu, and M. Karakaya, “Optic Disc Localization in Retina Images using Deep Learning Framework”, Proc. SPIE 11419, Disruptive Technologies in Information Sciences IV, 2020.

18.   E. Jalilian, A. Uhl, and M. Karakaya, “Gaze-angle Impact on Iris Segmentation using CNNs”, IEEE International Conference on Biometrics: Theory, Applications and Systems, Sep 2019.

19.   R. E. Hacisoftaoglu and M. Karakaya, “Field of View of Portable Ophthalmoscopes for Smartphones” SPIE Defense and Computational Sensing Conference, April 2019.

20.   M. Karakaya, “Deep Learning Frameworks for Off-Angle Iris Recognition” IEEE International Conference on Biometrics: Theory, Applications and Systems, Oct 2018.

21.   S. Cetin and M. Karakaya, “Effect of segmentation errors on off-angle iris recognition” Disruptive Technologies in Information Sciences, SPIE, Orlando, FL, 2018.

22.   E. T. Celik and M. Karakaya, “Pupil Dilation at Synthetic Off-angle Iris Images” Inter. Conference of the Biometrics Special Interest Group (BIOSIG), Germany, Sep. 2016.

23.   H. Sun, M. C. Uysalturk and M. Karakaya, “Invisible 2D Data Matrix Detection with Smart Phone Using Geometric Correction and Hough Transform” Optical Pattern Recognition XXVII, 98450P, SPIE, Baltimore, MD, Apr 2016.

24.   O. M. Kurtuncu, G. N. Cerme  and M. Karakaya, “Comparison and evaluation of datasets for off-angle iris recognition” Sensors, and Command, Control, Communications, and Intelligence Technologies for Homeland Security, Defense, and Law Enforcement Applications XV, 98250O, SPIE, Baltimore, MD, Apr 2016.

25.   O. M. Kürtüncü and M. Karakaya, “Limbus Impact Removal for Off-angle Iris Recognition using Eye Models” IEEE International Conference on Biometrics: Theory, Applications and Systems (BTAS), Washington DC, Sep 2015.

26.   G. N. Cerme  and M. Karakaya, “3D iris structure impact on iris recognition”,  IEEE Conference on Signal Processing and Communications Applications, TURKEY, 2015.

27.   M. Karakaya, R. Yoldash and C. B. Boehnen “A Gallery Approach for Off-angle Iris Recognition”, Biometric and Surveillance Technology for Human and Activity Identification XII, 945708, SPIE, Baltimore, MD, Apr 2015.

28.   M. Karakaya, D. Bolme, and C. Boehnen. “Eye Gaze Tracking Using Correlation Filters”, Image Processing: Machine Vision Applications VII, SPIE, vol. 9024, no. 29, Feb 2014.

29.   T. Yang, J. Stahl, S. Schuckers, F. Hua, C. B. Boehnen, M. Karakaya, "Gaze angle estimate and correction in iris recognition“, IEEE Symposium on Computational Intelligence in Biometrics and Identity Management, pp.132-138, Dec. 2014

30.   J. Thompson, H. S. Villalobos, M. Karakaya, D. Barstow, D. Bolme, and C. Boehnen, “Off-angle Iris Correction using a Biological Model”, IEEE International Conference on Biometrics: Theory, Applications and Systems (BTAS), Washington DC, Aug 2013.

31.   M. Karakaya, D. Barstow, H. S. Villalobos, J. Thompson, D. Bolme, and C. Boehnen, “Limbus Impact on Off-angle Iris Degradation”, International Conference on Biometrics, June 2013.

32.   M. Karakaya, R. A. Kerekes, and D. J. Solecki, “Automated Tracing and Segmentation Tool for Migrating Neurons in 4D Confocal Imagery”, Biomedical Sciences and Engineering Conference (BSEC), May 2013. 

33.   M. Karakaya, D. Barstow, H. S. Villalobos, J. Thompson, D. Bolme, and C. Boehnen, “Gaze Estimation for ORNL Biometric Eye Model in Off-angle Iris Recognition”, Biometrics and Surveillance Technology for Human and Activity Identification X, vol. 8712:14, May 2013.

34.   M. Karakaya, D. Barstow, H. S. Villalobos, and C. Boehnen, “An Iris Segmentation Algorithm based on Edge Orientation for Off-angle Iris Recognition”, Image Processing: Machine Vision Applications VI, SPIE, vol. 86617, no. 5, Feb 2013.

35.   M. Karakaya and H. Qi, “Communication and Energy Efficiency in Visual Sensor Networks for People Localization”, Future of Instrumentation Inter. Workshop, Oct 2012.

36.   H. S. Villalobos, D. Barstow, M. Karakaya, E. Chaum, and C. Boehnen, “ORNL Biometric Eye Model for Iris Recognition”, IEEE International Conference on Biometrics: Theory, Applications and Systems (BTAS 2012), Washington DC, Aug 2012.

37.   M. Karakaya, R. A. Kerekes, J. L. Morrell-Falvey, C. Foster, and S. T. Retterer, “Analysis of Tight Junction Formation and Integrity”, IEEE International Conference of the Engineering in Medicine and Biology, San Diego CA, Aug 2012.

38.   M. Karakaya and H. Qi, “Coverage Estimation in Heterogeneous Visual Sensor Networks”, 8th IEEE Inter. Conf. on Distributed Computing in Sensor Systems, Hangzhou, China, 2012.

39.   M. Karakaya and H. Qi, “Detection-based Tracking for Crowded Targets in Distributed Visual Sensor Networks”, Future of Instrumentation International Workshop, 2011.

40.   M. Karakaya, R. A. Kerekes, S. S. Gleason, R. A. Martins, and M. Dyer, “Automatic Detection, Segmentation and Classification of Retinal Horizontal Neurons in Large-scale 3D Confocal Imagery”, SPIE Medical Imaging Conference, Vol. 7962, Orlando FL, 2011.

41.   M. Karakaya and H. Qi, “Fault Detection, Correction, and Tolerance for Collaborative Target Localization in Visual Sensor Networks”, ACM/IEEE International Conference on Distributed Smart Cameras, Atlanta GA, 2010.

42.   M. Karakaya and H. Qi, “Target Detection and Counting in Crowds with a Progressive Certainty Map in Distributed Visual Sensor Networks”, ACM/IEEE International Conference on Distributed Smart Cameras, Como, Italy, 2009. (Best Paper Award)

43.   M. Karakaya, M. S. Alam and M. I. Elbakary, “Target Detection in High Dimensional Space Using a Stochastic Expectation Maximization Algorithm”, Algorithms and Technologies for Multispectral, Hyperspectral, and Ultraspectral Imagery XIII, SPIE, vol. 6565, May 2007.