Iris scan identification grows in use

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(Image: Stockfresh)

2 September 2016

An infrared sensor in a car could be placed in the instrument panel, centre console or rearview mirror to identify who is in the driver’s seat with an iris scan. With that kind of identity information, a car’s systems could be set to individual preferences for the height of the seat or radio stations, Prabhakar said. Iris scanners could even be used to detect when the driver is getting drowsy.

“Car makers can use it for whatever feature they want to build,” he said. A prime market will be rental car companies, which could identify frequent customers once they get seated in a car for a quick checkout.

Enhanced scans
In future iterations of iris scan technology, Delta ID may enhance the iris scan with identifiable aspects of a person’s nose and eyes, including the shape of the eyes and the distance between the eyes and nose. “It can’t be just the eyes and nose, but that information can supplement other information,” he said.

Interestingly, iris scans work for the blind and even for people with eye diseases, including like cataracts and glaucoma, Prabhakar said. That is because most of those diseases affect the lens of the eye and not the iris, which is a muscle that controls the pupil aperture.

However, there are some people’s irises that cannot be scanned because their pupils are not circular or are elongated, he said. Or, the iris has been injured or a person cannot open his or her eyes wide enough. India’s national identity program, with 1 billion fingerprints and iris scans completed, found that one in a 1,000 irises could not be scanned. That programme also found that one in 20 fingerprints could not be accurately scanned, a much higher rate.

“The iris ID has so much going for it. We want to stay focused on it,” Prabhakar said.

Small market
While Delta ID and a few competitors like Eyelock and Iris ID are focused on growing the iris scanning market in various devices, IHS Technology said earlier this year that it is a small market so far. Iris scanners made up less than 1% of the market for iris, fingerprint and facial scanners in 2015, IHS said.

Iris scanner technology alone is unlikely to increase sales of any smart phone or tablet model, said Ramon Llamas, an analyst at IDC. “People don’t buy a device for a security feature like [an iris scan],” he said. “Now, a complete security solution is a different story.”

 

 

IDG News Service

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