Iris recognition technology

IriScan Inc. has been developing an identification/verification system capable of positively identifying and verifying the identity of individuals without physical contact or human intervention. A new technology, using the unique patterns of the human iris, shows promise of overcoming previous shortcomings and providing positive identification of an individual without contact or invasion, at extremely high confidence levels. The video-based system locates the eye and iris; evaluates the degree of occlusion by eyelid and spectral reflection; determines the quality of image focus; and determines the center and boundary of the pupil and the limbus (outer edge of the iris) for processing. The iris is zoned, and the features therein measured and encoded into a 256-byte (2048 bit) IrisCode for enrollment or identification. The presented biometric is compared to an extensive database for identification, or to a referenced IrisCode for verification. Computations and decisions are accomplished at extremely high rates of speed, resulting in processing times of less than two seconds. The process is based on the unique nature and extreme richness of the human iris. The multiple features produce a non-duplicable organ with more than 400 degrees of freedom, or measurable variables. The IriScan process typically uses about 200 of these to create a code which can be compared to an entire database in milliseconds, producing a positive identification with “imposter odds” as high as 1 in 10³⁴