Iris recognition technology: applications, security deployment, and biometric advances

Biometric Optical Technology

Retina Biometric Technology Applications

This work reviews the "retina biometric technological application' in relation to the practical use of this application as well as the drawbacks, failures and successes that have been experienced with this technological security application. Biometric technology has been called the most precise biometric technology available today. This technology is under deployment at many airports across the globe to tighten security screening of airline employees and passengers. The product was patented in 18987 by Leonard Flom and Aran Safir for recognizing that the human irises have features that are unique to the point that the positive and accurate identification of individuals is possible and viable. In 1994 another patent was awarded to Dr. John Daugman who developed mathematical algorithms enabling image of the iris to be encoded and sorted digitally and then made the image compared to an iris image in real-time. This work explores the specifics of this application in the mapping of the iris for biometric recognition.

Retina Biometric Technology Applications

Objective

The objective of this work is to research and examine an application that uses retina biometric technology in security scanning and to detail the specific functions in this application.

I. Introduction

In the high-tech world of today security systems are all prevalent in both the public eye but as well in the view of the individual who seeks to protect their property and their family. The equipment utilized is stated to be "electronic. Optical and acoustic security, detection, monitoring and surveillance systems" (Market Research Report, Business Communications Co. 2002) Further all of this technological advances in security are used for the purpose of protecting" persons, organizations and companies, commercial and social operations, civil and military installations both at national and international levels....[ranging from] "the personalized security systems of a home to large-scale systems for the protection of crucial national installations." Inclusive in these systems are closed-circuit television cameras which comprise the omnipresent all-seeing eyes throughout the cities and in railway and subway stations. The constant recording and transmission of these hidden cameras informs law enforcement and security personnel of any impending threats.

Biometric Identification Technology Systems

Retina recognition and retinal pattern recognition has been used for many years. However the high costs of this type of Biometric identification resulted in the product being removed from the market. Recently the emergence of biometric technology systems has witnessed a climb in use rates for the purpose of identification all across the globe. Iris or Retinal scanning is done through high-resolution imaging using infrared and a specialized camera. The VRD or 'Virtual Retinal Display" through use of both horizontal and vertical scanning technology in the function of inputting small slices of picture superimposed on the retina in the scanning identification process. Biometric technology has been called the most precise biometric technology available today. This technology is under deployment at many airports across the globe to tighten security screening of airline employees and passengers. The product was patented in 1987 by Leonard Flom and Aran Safir for recognizing that the human irises have features that are unique to the point that the positive and accurate identification of individuals is possible and viable. In 1994 another patent was awarded to Dr. John Daugman who developed mathematical algorithms enabling image of the iris to be encoded and sorted digitally and then made the image compared to an iris image in real-time.

II. Biometric Technology - Superior to Other Applications

In the work entitled "Physical Security in Mission Critical Facilities" the author, Suzanne Niles, relates the fact that in methods of making identification of people fall into three primary categories "of increasing reliability - and increasing equipment costs:

1) What you have

2) What you know; and 3) Who you are. Niles states that the most reliable method of identification is "Who you are" which "refers to identification by recognition of unique physical characteristics."

III. Two Existing Failures in Biometric Recognition

There are two failures that exist in the application of Biometric Recognition. Those two failures are:

1) False rejection in which the system fails to recognize the individual who is legitimately a user creating great frustration for users denied access because of system failure in recognition of them.

2) False acceptance which is through confusion of one user and another or the acceptance of an invalid individual as being a user that is legitimate.

Although the rate of failure is easily adjusted through modifying the threshold through decreasing the rate of failure on the end of rejection or acceptance the increase of failure on the other end of the spectrum increases In the act of choosing equipment with biometric functions the considerations are stated to be:

1) Equipment cost and 2) Failure Rates.

Drawbacks to consumer embrasure of the retinal scanners are due to the requirement of the eye to be one to two inches away from the scanner while an LED is focused directly into the individual's eye.

Concerns of Optical Biometric Technology

Both infrared and visible light is used in retinal scanning. The visible light is not overly bright and everyone does not experience the spots in the eyes after the scanning that some report.

The application has been deemed through testing to be safe in its' use.

Summary and Conclusion

While there are those that feel retina scanning is too intrusive there are others that consider the small inconvenience well worth the security provided by the retinal scanning biometric technology applications in the realm of security assurance. There are also those who feel that this type of application could result in company abuse of the information relating to employees due to the fact that "while Iridians algorithms are only used for identification and verification, modifications could theoretically be made that would analyze the iris for disease, alcoholism, drug abuse and even a predisposition toward certain kinds of diseases." This fact alone leads to the conclusion that much legislation is certain in the future for the regulation of the optical biometric scanning application's use.