David Johnston

New Jersey, USA

VP Marketing, LG Electronics

Iris recognition and lasers? The writer is mistaking iris recognition which takes a video PICTURE of the colored externally visible part of the eye (iris-a donut shpaed ring around the pupil) and digitizes this to a 512 byte template. If you are comfortble with a camcorder--you'll be comfortable with iris recognition.

The writer is no doubt confusing iris recognition with retinal scanning, and older but rapidly disappearing ocular based technology which did involve penetration of the eye with bright illumination or laser to map the vascualture on the inside back wall of the eyeball, in muvbh the same way your doc does when he checks pupil response and for glaucoma. Iris recognition uses very low level, and short duration illumination with IR to eliminate specular reflection in varying ambient light conditions.

Iris recognition technology is a long way from the fanciful depictions of Hollywood such as appear in Minority Report. The image capture process requires a subject be within 3-30 inches, depending on the platform used. Virtually all applications are opt-in. Unlike facial recognition, iris recognition has zero utility as a surveillance technology, nor does it have any records that can be compared to the databases of fingerprints amassed for law enforcement, criminal, and forensic purposes.

Hope this helps people see this technology with a little greater clarity.