Iris Recognition
In the computer world, they say it is important to keep your eyes on the future, and in the research that follows, we're going to do just that. I am planning on exploring the ins and outs of iris recognition biometrics. Whether we like it or not, biometrics are here to stay and are becoming more and more popular as each year passes. Although the automated method of iris recognition has only existed in patent since 1994, an ophthalmologist, by the name of Frank Burch, first proposed the idea of using ones iris patterns as a method to recognize someone in 1936. It's hard to imagine that this type of biometrics recognition began almost 80 years ago. (FBI)
Iris recognition is being used worldwide and is growing in popularity at an astonishing rate. Twenty-nine Canadian airports are using iris recognition for their employees and at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport, they have fast-track lines at passport control that use iris scanning to identify flight crews and frequent travelers. You may think that airports and banks are the only type of companies that have these types of biometric security, but iris recognition is being used in more basic applications. Such as, a sugar beet factory in Wisconsin uses iris scanning to keep track of time and attendance of their employees because its more accurate than a card swipe ad less intrusive as other types of biometrics. (Iris Recognition Systems for Access Control and Identity Management Gain Popularity) We may look at iris scanning technologies as some type of Sci-Fi gear or some super spy gadgets, but it has become common place all around the world.
The way iris recognition works is fairly simple. One brand of iris recognition system is "IrisAccess". Enrollment into the system takes about two minutes, and authenticating an iris scan takes merely 2 seconds. I would say that is fairly fast, considering if you were using a password or a PIN code in order to authenticate. No wonder companies are deploying this...