Polarized biometric operations

A system comprising:

• an illumination source comprising (i) an illumination device operable to emit light and (ii) a bandpass filter operable to selectively transmit the light that the illumination device emits at a first wavelength range, the illumination source positioned so that the light of the first wavelength range that the bandpass filter transmits is directed to a biometric feature, the biometric feature reflecting at least a portion of the light of the first wavelength range after the light transmits through the bandpass filter;
• a polarization selector operable to receive light reflected from the biometric feature, the polarization selector operable between:
• a first state operable to selectively transmit incoming light having a first polarization, and
• a second state operable to selectively transmit incoming light having a second polarization;
• an imager operable to receive the light selectively transmitted by the polarization selector and generate one or more images;
• a controller operable to perform a biometric authentication based, at least in part, on the one or more images;
• and
• a polarizer optically disposed between the polarization selector and the biometric feature, the polarizer operable to substantially transmit light comprising the first polarization and the second polarization and substantially excludes light not of the first polarization and the second polarization,
• wherein, the first wavelength range of the light exiting the bandpass filter is associated with infrared or near infrared regions of an electromagnetic spectrum.