Keeping an eye on security

By PETER GRIFFIN

Forget swipe cards, PIN numbers and passwords. In an increasingly security-conscious world, your eyeballs will be your key to entry.

Japanese technology giant Panasonic has introduced iris recognition to the New Zealand market and hopes to sell its devices for everything from critical data centres and executive office suites to laboratories, airport lounges, banks and government facilities.

It joins a number of IT and electronics companies - Hitachi, OKI, Siemens and Unisys among them - who are seeking a foothold in the biosecurity market, which is expected to be worth US$4 billion ($6.5 billion) worldwide by 2007.

Panasonic has been selling iris-based systems for some time, but the New Zealand division has waited for the market to mature.

Its new iris recognition system is a lightweight silver box holding two cameras, one for each eye, memory to store the iris images of hundreds of users, a mini computer and a colour closed circuit TV camera.

The device can work over a network - which is the way big organisations are most likely to use it.

Eye identifications for new employees can be loaded on to the system from a central location and access controlled using administration software.

To use the system, the employee looks into the mirrored panel on the device while the iris images are compared with those in the memory.

If they match, access is granted and the electronic lock on the door is opened. It takes only a couple of seconds.

Panasonic's sales pitch points out that key cards can be dropped in hallways, PIN numbers and passwords guessed or cracked. Fingerprint recognition has a relatively high error rate.

The company says that the iris recognition technology, which works from the unique patterns of the iris, has a "false acceptance" rate of 1 in 1.2 million.

And despite the cringe-inducing scenes from Hollywood sci-fi movies, a dead eye-ball will not work.

Panasonic's security and industrial manager, Roger Schmidt, said the technology took detailed photos of the eyes, rather than "scanning" them.

"In the past there was the perception that the back of the eye was being scanned with a laser, so people were reluctant to use them."

Panasonic is testing the technology at several sites.

A new customer, on a big site next to Panasonic's headquarters in Manukau, is using the iris reader as a high-tech alternative to the employee punch-card.

Employees look into the cameras to record their time of arrival and departure. A single iris reader with the administration software and a 100-user licence sells for around $13,000. Readers can be added for about $6000 each, though Panasonic will negotiate discounts for big buyers.

Schmidt said Panasonic got into iris recognition camera business through its digital camera division and after doing a deal with US biometrics firm Iridian, which holds wordwide patents on iris recognition technology.

It is also introducing a PC iris recognition system that will cost about $600 and replace passwords to give access to PC software.

Falling computer chip prices and biometrics licences are likely to bring the technology's price down quickly.

Work is now being done on face and iris recognition to make the technology accurate in "one-to-many" locations, such as a crowded airport lounge.

And the US Central Intelligence Agency is developing iris recognition technology that is able to identify people who are moving and at a distance - eventually in much the same way as traffic police point lasers at moving cars.