Spreading Iris Tracking Technology to Every State
The iris is the most distinguishing visible part of the human body. By taking a high resolution photograph of both eyes, focusing specifically on the irises, an officer could check a suspect against a criminal database in seconds. Alternatively, a child’s identity could be run through a database of missing children in the same amount of time. This is the goal of the National Sheriff’s Association, which is providing a grant to promote the use of this technology and get it into the hands of law enforcement.
Funded by the National Sheriff’s Association, B12 Technologies of Massachusetts will be rolling out their Morris device to at least one agency in every state by the end of June. Currently, 243 systems are in place, with Douglas County in Nebraska being one of the initial 15 agencies receiving the Morris Device. The Child Project, co-founded by B12 Technologies’ President and CEO, Sean Mullin, provides a secure, national database of children and adults. Once children are registered, they can be scanned and identified for life in just seconds. Iris recognition could be a far more reliable method than fingerprinting identification programs; the information is stored on a national registry, preventing parents from having to remember what they did with their child’s fingerprint identification cards years after having them done.
Sheriff Tim Dunning, of the Douglas County Sheriff’s Department says, “These systems can also help us better identify, register and track inmates and registered sex offenders.” Why stop at identifying children when you could also provide preventative measures such as performing compliance checks for criminals? With the Morris device, which will be handheld and able to work via Wi-Fi, mobile iris tracking will be made possible. One of the major biometrics used in Law Enforcement, Military and the Intelligence community will be able to be taken into the field.
A mobile technology such as this will provide law enforcement with yet another tool to serve and protect.This technology promises to provide useful tools for drug and alcohol intoxication tests or fitness to drive tests which will give officers an even more powerful method to gauge an individual’s sobriety. It would seem that a combination of today’s iris recognition and eye tracking technologies would provide law enforcement with one powerful tool, making this a springboard for even more sophisticated technologies.
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