One Step Closer to Minority Report-Style Iris Scanning

AOptix and competitors including Retica Systems and Sarnoff Corporation (and its new Iris on the Move product), have long touted their ability to scan a human iris from a distance and even while the person is moving.

The technology is designed to blend the accuracy of iris recognition with the passive interaction of a surveillance camera and now AOptix is claiming to provide this ability at up to 2.5 meters! Here is an excerpt from from their latest press release:

"By using adaptive optics the company is able to correct for a subject’s motion and gain better focus, Phil Tusa [the company’s vice president of biometric programs] says. The system is also able to capture both iris images from a distance of 1.5 to 2.5 meters."

Iris-at-a-distance and iris-on-the-move are emerging sectors in the biometric market; however, Tusa argues that Aoptix has a unique approach to managing operations.

“Our concept is to ask the subject for two seconds to look at the device and open their eyes,” he says. “This will greatly improve matching accuracy results and we’re not going to have bad images.”

Here is an interview with Tusa:

Let me tell you, their stuff works. Over a year ago, I had the opportunity to see this product while it was still in the lab. Technicians then were able to capture and identify my iris at over 2.5 meters. Pretty impressive stuff -- and that was over a year ago!

Biometrics: The New Timecard Verifier?

Will biometrics soon find be finding its way into office cubicles? That's the question biometrics experts, privacy advocates and academic researchers discussed in Westminster, England this week while discussing the future of biometric technology in the workplace.

In addition to augmenting security controls in private companies, experts realize that utilizing biometrics could have an economic benefit as well. Hugh Carr Archer, chief executive of biometric firm Aurora stated that a customer company utilizing facial biometrics to ensure employees were working when they claimed to be saved six per cent of its wage bill by defeating the typical strategy of employees clocking in and out for each other.

“Fred, for example, clocks on work [for Bill] when the foreman’s not looking, while Bill’s at home putting his feet up. The foreman creates three ghost workers because he can then get their pay packets," Archer said.

Particularly in this economic climate, ensuring the efficiency of your staff is crucial. As a result, with facial recognition and other biometrics solutions finding its way into airports, schools, ATMs and even DMVs, the workplace may be the next spot on the horizon.

However, being cognizant of privacy implications here is important. While infringements aren't an immediate concern to many watchdogs, going forward, some are worried they could play a role. "They are a lighting rod to privacy issues," Toby Stevens, director of the Enterprise Privacy Group, said. "This is because of personal sensitivities – my face, my fingers, my eyes, my voice – and they may carry information to you that I may not wish to convey.”

Some people worry about revealing passport and social security numbers when starting a new position -- not sure how they'll feel about having their irises scanned prior to entering the office or surveillance cameras looking over their shoulder while they're on the clock. Definitely still some particulars to work out, but should be interesting to watch.

A Billion Dollars for Biometrics

The FBI Biometric Center of Excellence is currently working on a Next Generation Identification (NGI) system that will combine iris scans, facial imaging, palm prints and fingerprint identification technologies in one, multi-dimensional system. The platform is intended to succeed the outdated Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS) put in place in 1999.

The cost on this ten-year investment? A small price tag of $1 billion dollars.

Plans for NGI include increased fingerprint storage capacity and accelerated fingerprint processing times for high priority criminals, as well as the creation of a special database of names, which will include sexual offenders, wanted persons and terrorists.

"NGI will give us bigger, better, faster capabilities and lead us into the future. We have added additional capabilities to our current system, and are working with the Departments of Homeland Security, Defense, State, and the International law enforcement community in making our communities safer," said Thomas E. Bush, Assistant Director of the FBI's Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Division.

Of course, privacy concerns abound in relation to the amount of personal data stored and collected on average American citizens. The FBI Web site proactively addresses these concerns and notes that the NGI system refuses to expand the categories of people from whom they collect data already, but will rather collect additional data on criminals and terrorists. As Bush said, "The privacy and security of the system is extremely important and we have to ensure the relationship with privacy advocacy groups, and make sure it's not accessible to unauthorized persons."

Eternal viligance.

Army Upgrades Biometric Gear

From Defense News:

The U.S. Army and Marines are upgrading more than 4,000 Polaroid camera-sized biometric detection devices that scan, track and identify potential terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan, service and industry officials said. The Handheld Interagency Identity Detection Equipment (HIIDE) scans fingerprints or irises, then matches them with those stored in a remote database. […] "With identification technology, you will know that if a farmer in southern Iraq shows up running around in northern Iraq as a taxi driver, you have reason to be suspicious."

Mass Iris Scanning May Replace Airport Queues

From GCN Insider:

“Envision a future in which large-scale portal screening such as at airports is no longer a matter of forming long, snaking lines for serial processing, but more nearly resembles Grand Central Station, with individual travelers moving in a Brownian way,” — that is, any way they want to, William Gravel, a Defense Department consultant, said to the audience at a recent biometrics conference in Baltimore. “It is a vision,” he said, but “it is not a fantasy.”

Terrorists Get BATized on the Go

U.S. forces have some new tools at their disposal. The Biometrics Automated Toolset, or BAT for short, now includes lightweight portable units capable of scanning and identifying bad guys on the run...and in the blink of an eye.

With today’s technology, however, the size and weight of systems have been reduced, which means members of America’s armed forces are more willing to use them. Currently 735,000 detainees in Iraq have been entered into a BAT system that can be obtained quickly -- even in the field, Jones said. The system provides an opportunity for a soldier to check to see if a person caused problems before or was a suspect but released. […] Being small, portable and affordable, the GIs like the new biometric systems, which also are being used by military police, check point security guards, and base compound guards as a way to rapidly identify insurgents. The Language and Technology Office continues to look for additional systems that will provide other information to add to the BAT arsenal. When the office began a few years ago, there were three government employees and a few contractors. Now “we have three govs (government employees) and 60 contractors,” which shows the increased importance of biometrics, Jones said.