IriTech, a leading iris based identity management technology solutions company has developed a new technology to effectively capture and process iris images under direct sunlight of over 100,000 lux – a move it claimed will boost iris recognition technology’s convergence with the various industries such as the mobile device, wearables and automobile.
Until now, one of the biggest impediment for the iris recognition industry to take the technology mainstream was capturing a clean iris image under direct sunlight as the visible light signals are too strong for iris cameras to capture the iris pattern within an IR region created by a LED light source that it would create reflections in the eye. Conventional solutions required bulky or expensive add-ons or components to eliminate the reflections that make obtaining a clean iris image difficult.
The vendor said the technology does not require major extra hardware components thus additional cost will be minimal if not negligible. “This is finally a viable solution to take iris recognition mainstream. Especially at a time when mobile devices and automobiles are embracing biometrics. Our technology will make sure the user experience is not compromised in bright environments,” said Dr. Daniel Kim, CEO of IriTech.
“The next generation of smartphones will have iris cameras built into them” – Nilekani, former UIDAI chief
Apple’s release of TouchID has lit the fire of the current hype around biometrics and in India, where the world’s largest biometrics project is in progress under the UIDAI — an ambitious plan to issue biometric ID cards to all 1.2 billion residents and to use them in all sorts of everyday transactions — former UIDAI chief envisions that the next generation of smartphones will have iris cameras built into them. Deployment of iris recognition technology in mobile devices will provide a significant enhancement in security as it has top-notch accuracy and high rate of enrolment.
“Iris recognition was highly utilised by military forces and government institutions but to make it into the B2C markets such as mobile devices, wearables and automobile, IriTech’s ‘outdoor capturing technology’ will become a requisite,” said Dr. Kim.