Experts eye up iris recognition

Iris recognition is destined to become most used and researched biometric technology, according to industry experts, reports CRN.com.

US-based technology strategy and research consultancy, Acuity Market Intelligence has found that iris recognition will rapidly evolve in capabilities and ease of use over the next 10 to 15 years catapulting the technology to the forefront of biometrics applications.

Acuity anticipates that the iris recognition category will achieve a 16 per cent market share, the largest of any single biometric modality, generating $1.5bn in annual revenues worldwide.

Some believe technology allowing people to use their fingerprints to make transactions could become mainstream within the next 10 years, says stuff.co.nz.

The concept is a reality in a limited capacity in some places but observers believe the technology could become mainstream by 2012.

Biometric scanning to make transactions is expected to be one of many new methods that are part of a revolution in payments technology already taking place.

The US Homeland Security Department is revamping its electronic systems for helping employers verify the identities of workers and for storing biometric and biographic information on people who apply for immigration benefits, says govexec.com.

President Bush said on Monday that helping employers verify people`s right to work in the country is a critical part of the administration`s effort for comprehensive immigration reform.

"We must create a better system for employers to verify the legality of their workers," Bush said in a speech along the Arizona-Mexico border. He also called for issuing workers new tamper-resistant cards that prove they are able to work in the country.

Almost six million children at 17,000 British schools could have their fingerprints taken, intensifying fears of the growth of a "surveillance society" where personal information is gathered from cradle to grave, says NZ Herald.

As soaring numbers of schools require pupils to have biometric checks to register in the morning, buy canteen food or borrow a book, it emerged that less than one quarter of local education authorities have banned collecting fingerprints.

The loophole has provoked a civil liberties row, with the Government facing demands to introduce a code of practice to prevent such information being collected without permission.