Bill Voltmer, president and CEO of Iridian Technologies, a Marlton, N.J.-based biometrics vendor that specializes in iris recognition technology, estimates that an iris recognition system can sort through 100,000 records in two or three seconds, while claiming that a fingerprint system would require at least 15 minutes to perform the same task. In the entire human population, no two irises are alike, even between identical twins. Iris recognition's biggest disadvantage has been its high cost. But prices have fallen dramatically during the past few years. Regardless of cost, iris recognition offers an important intangible benefit, says San Jose State's Wayman.
Many people associate fingerprinting with criminal activity.
Iris recognition is a hands-off technology that works at distances of up to several feet and is less intrusive than fingerprint scanning. Face-Off Facial recognition is another biometrics technology that's widely considered nonintrusive. It's so passive, in fact, that the systems can scan people without their knowledge. Gartner Dataquest's Reynolds notes that many casinos, and even some police departments, use a combination of security cameras and facial recognition software to match faces against databases of known troublemakers. Facial recognition works by isolating human faces in still pictures and measuring an array of facial characteristics, such as the geometry of a person's eyes, mouth and nose.