A system for iris detection at a distance of non-cooperative or cooperative subjects, comprising:a multi-band imaging camera for detecting skin of a subject;a first mechanism for determining with specific algorithms whether the skin is of a region containing at least a part of a face of the subject containing at least one eye, by locating several facial features such as eyes, eyebrows, nose or mouth and their positions relative to each other;an adjustable zoom camera, connected to a processor, for obtaining initial close-up high resolution images of the region that contains at least one eye, the eye not necessarily looking directly at the camera; anda second mechanism, connected to the camera, for determining, with eye tracking algorithms, whether the initial images contain a best iris position; andwherein:the best iris position is determined with the algorithms by maximizing a function that depends on key features of the iris to provide a point of maximization;wherein the processor is configured to send a reacquisition request to the zoom camera to obtain additional close-up high resolution images of the region that contains at least one eye if the initial images do not contain a best iris position;wherein if the initial images do contain a best iris position, the zoom camera takes several secondary close-up images of each iris region at the point of maximization; andwherein the secondary images are passed on to be processed by an iris recognition device...
(more)