Iris recognition is the most powerful biometric technology there is. Nothing else comes close. Nothing.

• Most accurate
• Scalable
• Opt-in
• Non-contact
• Inter operable cameras

The iris is the plainly visible, colored ring that surrounds the pupil. It is a muscular structure that controls the amount of light entering the eye, with intricate details that can be measured, such as striations, pits, and furrows. The iris is not to be confused with the retina, which lines the inside of the back of the eye. No two irises are alike. There is no detailed correlation between the iris patterns of even identical twins, or the right and left eye of an individual. The amount of information that can be measured in a single iris is much greater than fingerprints, and the accuracy is greater than DNA.

An iris recognition camera takes a black and white picture from 5 to 24 inches away, depending on the type of camera. The camera uses non-invasive, near-infrared illumination (similar to a TV remote control) that is barely visible and very safe. Proof Positive certified cameras are in compliance with all applicable international illumination safety standards, including ANSI/IESNA RP-27.1-96 and IEC 60825-1 Amend.2, Class 1 LED. These are the latest worldwide standards. Unlike other biometric technologies that can be used in surveillance mode, iris recognition is an opt-in technology. In order to use the technology you must first glance at a camera. Iris recognition cannot take place without your permission.

The picture of an eye is first processed by software that localizes the inner and outer boundaries of the iris, and the eyelid contours, in order to extract just the iris portion. Eyelashes and reflections that may cover parts of the iris are detected and discounted. Sophisticated mathematical software then encodes the iris pattern by a process called Demodulation. This creates a phase code for the texture sequence in the iris, similar to a DNA sequence code. The Demodulation process uses functions called 2-D wavelets that make a very compact yet complete description of the iris pattern, regardless of its size and pupil dilation, in just 512 bytes. The phase sequence is called an IrisCode® template, and it captures the unique features of an iris in a robust way that allows easy and very rapid comparisons against large databases of other templates. The IrisCode® template is immediately encrypted to eliminate the possibility of identity theft and to maximize security.

In less than a few seconds, even on a database of millions of records, the IrisCode® template generated from a live image is compared to previously enrolled ones to see if it matches any of them. The decision threshold is automatically adjusted for the size of the search database to ensure that no false matches occur even when huge numbers of IrisCode® templates are being compared with the live one. Some of the bits in an IrisCode® template signify if some data is corrupted (for example by reflections, or contact lens boundaries), so that it does not influence the process, and only valid data is compared. Decision thresholds take account of the amount of visible iris data, and the matching operation compensates for any tilt of the iris. A key advantage of iris recognition is its ability to perform identification using a one-to-all search of a database, with no limitation on the number of IrisCode® records and no requirement for a user first to claim an identity, for example with a card.