Eye Tracking: Iris Scanning to be the Ultimate Reference Point?
As iris recognition technology advances, it is becoming a far superior alternative to biometric fingerprint scanning. The technology site Fast Company just posted an article in which they interviewed Jeff Carter of Global Rainmakers Inc., a company that reportedly has big plans for iris scanning in the future.
Global Rainmakers Inc (GRI) went with iris scanning based on problems with reference data. There isn’t a way to link all data about us together, Carter explains. “It’s one of the reasons why our bank account doesn’t reconcile until 48 hours later because there’s all this data behind it that they have to execute manually. When you look at the ways to link the data together, biometrics is an obvious choice.”
A fingerprint has about 100 recognizable data points, for example. On a good fingerprint, you may get about 15 points if it’s done perfectly. And of those 15, you only need 7 or 8 points to convict, so essentially, Carter says, you only need 7 or 8 points across a huge population of people. This being said, fingerprints make for a lot of problems in recognition.
An iris, on the other hand, has over 2000 points – and all of them appear when you are born. Of those 2000 points, you can create a unique 16,000 bit stream of numbers that represent every human on the planet, providing a reference point that can “connect everything you do in all aspects of life, for the first time ever.”
Carter says that India is now doing the world’s first digital census (we mentioned related news in a recent post), collecting fingerprints, face, and iris. Face is important of course, as are voice biometrics. The CIA, for example, sifts through cell phones and creates voice biometrics to find Al-Qaeda members and other terrorists. Biometrics are important, he says, but DNA is difficult to capture from a distance (or unwilling participant) so iris recognition seems a good choice.
Carter says GRI’s technology is able to scan irises in motion, from a distance. Technology in airports only a few years ago required you to hold still for about 30 seconds while the scanner found you, and if you moved, it would blur. GRI’s approach allows the scannee to be on the move.
The Eyes Have It: Why Iris Scanning Rules
Related articles:
- Eye Tracking: Iris Scanning Is Coming, Like It Or Not
- Iris Scanning Goes Big
- Beware of Problems With Iris Recognition
- The All-In-One AOptix Face and Iris Recognition System
- Can Iris Scanning Technology Tell the Difference Between Twins?
- Iris Recognition is Advancing. Could It Help Eye Tracking?
- Iris Recognition Becoming Critical Part of NYC Police Database
- Iris Recognition Finds Support at U.S. State Department
- Iris Recognition: There’s No Escape with New Security Cameras
- Iris Recognition: The Fingerprint of the Eye