Anonymity Lost: Irises part of future to find those off the grid and missing
Submitted by MichaelVail on Fri, 01/26/2007 - 2:22am.
PryorDailyTimes
Posted: Jan 19, 2007
MIDDLETON, Mass. — The iris has it — the key to your identity, that is.
And someday soon, sheriff departments in the state’s 14 counties could be using iris scans to find missing children and adults, with the Middleton Jail taking the lead in making what used to be the stuff of James Bond films a reality.
Like your fingerprints, patterns, swirls, lines and spots on the iris never change. A scan of the iris with a digital camera can be stored in a database for retrieval later, and then used to verify a child’s identity.
State use of iris biometric recognition increased over the last few years.
In 2005, sheriffs in southeastern Massachusetts launched a program called the Children’s Identification Location Database Project.
At the time, the president of the CHILD Project, Sean Mullin, cited U.S. Justice Department studies that showed 2,000 children are reported missing every day.
The disappearance and recent discovery of Shawn Hornbeck, now 15, after four years highlights the need for such a system, said Paul Fleming, a spokesman for the Essex County Correctional Facility.
Hornbeck was allegedly held captive by 41-year-old Michael Devlin and his discovery only came to light when authorities went to rescue 13-year-old Ben Ownby from Devlin’s apartment in a St. Louis, Mo., suburb. Ownby had been abducted four days before.
“That information (the iris scan) would be stored in a national database,” Fleming said. “If a child is abducted or missing that information would be used to find a missing child.”
The Massachusetts Sheriff’s Association wants to use iris biometric recognition in all 14 counties, and because Essex County Sheriff Frank Cousins is the new president of the organization, he has taken on the project, Fleming said.
“We are looking for responses from companies that are interested in bidding,” Fleming said. Companies have until 2 p.m. on Feb. 15 to submit bids.
Details of the system, such as which national database might be used to store the scans, would become final once the company is picked.
The move to iris scans came about after state lawmakers in July passed a bill containing $439,000 for the sheriffs association to use the technology.
Four other sheriffs departments in the state have already taken steps to create a regional child protection database.
In August 2005, sheriffs from Dukes, Barnstable, Nantucket and Plymouth launched the Children’s Identification Location Database Project using iris biometric recognition technology.
Iridian Technologies Inc. of New Jersey provided the biometric hardware and software to digitally encode an image of a child’s iris, according to a press release from the sheriffs.
Panasonic Security Systems iris readers were used to capture images by simply looking into a camera. The CHILD Project’s database was hosted by the Nation’s Missing Children Organization and National Center for Missing Adults.
Iris scans can be used for identification because there are more than 200 points, rings, freckles and furrows in the iris, according to the National Center for State Courts’ Web site.
The use of such technology is growing. Research firm Frost and Sullivan pegs revenues for the world iris recognition biometrics at $31.4 million in 2005, with that number expected to reach $313.3 million in 2013.
Middleton Jail has already gone high tech when it comes to using facial recognition software, a move separate from iris scans.
In April 2005, Essex County police departments and law enforcement officials began to use facial recognition software by Billerica-based Viisage Technology Inc. through a $200,000 grant from the federal government.
Later that year, Viisage received a $100 million infusion from L-1 Investment Partners. Viisage then snapped up Iridian Technologies, which pioneered iris recognition technology used by the sheriffs in southeastern Massachusetts. Eventually, Viisage became part of a new company, L-1 Identity Solutions.
Iridian holds the intellectual property licenses on the iris recognition technology. Another L-1 company, SecuriMetrix, provides iris recognition products, including mobile iris recognition devices. An attempt to reach an executive for SecuriMetrix was unsuccessful.
Meanwhile, facial recognition technology has also drawn fire from the American Civil Liberties Union over privacy concerns.
Fleming said he understands there could be similar concerns about the storage of iris scans.
“It would be done on a voluntary basis,” Fleming said. “By no means would people be force to do this or compelled to do this, absolutely not.”
(Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.)
Ethan Forman writes for The Salem (Mass.) News.
All about iris biometrics
A user looks into a device so he can see his reflection
A user can stand from up to 2 feet away from the device
The device can verify the iris in less than 5 seconds
The idea for iris scans was proposed by ophthalmologists Frank Burch in 1936.
In 1987, ophthalmologists Aran Safir and Leonard Flom patented the notion
In 1989, John Daugman, then of Harvard University, patented algorithms for iris recognition in 1994
A company, Iridian Technologies, owns these patents
In 1994, Lancaster County Prison in Pennsylvania was the first to use the system to identify prisoners.
Posted: Jan 19, 2007
MIDDLETON, Mass. — The iris has it — the key to your identity, that is.
And someday soon, sheriff departments in the state’s 14 counties could be using iris scans to find missing children and adults, with the Middleton Jail taking the lead in making what used to be the stuff of James Bond films a reality.
Like your fingerprints, patterns, swirls, lines and spots on the iris never change. A scan of the iris with a digital camera can be stored in a database for retrieval later, and then used to verify a child’s identity.
State use of iris biometric recognition increased over the last few years.
In 2005, sheriffs in southeastern Massachusetts launched a program called the Children’s Identification Location Database Project.At the time, the president of the CHILD Project, Sean Mullin, cited U.S. Justice Department studies that showed 2,000 children are reported missing every day.
The disappearance and recent discovery of Shawn Hornbeck, now 15, after four years highlights the need for such a system, said Paul Fleming, a spokesman for the Essex County Correctional Facility.
Hornbeck was allegedly held captive by 41-year-old Michael Devlin and his discovery only came to light when authorities went to rescue 13-year-old Ben Ownby from Devlin’s apartment in a St. Louis, Mo., suburb. Ownby had been abducted four days before.
“That information (the iris scan) would be stored in a national database,” Fleming said. “If a child is abducted or missing that information would be used to find a missing child.”
The Massachusetts Sheriff’s Association wants to use iris biometric recognition in all 14 counties, and because Essex County Sheriff Frank Cousins is the new president of the organization, he has taken on the project, Fleming said.
“We are looking for responses from companies that are interested in bidding,” Fleming said. Companies have until 2 p.m. on Feb. 15 to submit bids.
Details of the system, such as which national database might be used to store the scans, would become final once the company is picked.
The move to iris scans came about after state lawmakers in July passed a bill containing $439,000 for the sheriffs association to use the technology.
Four other sheriffs departments in the state have already taken steps to create a regional child protection database.
In August 2005, sheriffs from Dukes, Barnstable, Nantucket and Plymouth launched the Children’s Identification Location Database Project using iris biometric recognition technology.
Iridian Technologies Inc. of New Jersey provided the biometric hardware and software to digitally encode an image of a child’s iris, according to a press release from the sheriffs.
Panasonic Security Systems iris readers were used to capture images by simply looking into a camera. The CHILD Project’s database was hosted by the Nation’s Missing Children Organization and National Center for Missing Adults.
Iris scans can be used for identification because there are more than 200 points, rings, freckles and furrows in the iris, according to the National Center for State Courts’ Web site.
The use of such technology is growing. Research firm Frost and Sullivan pegs revenues for the world iris recognition biometrics at $31.4 million in 2005, with that number expected to reach $313.3 million in 2013.
Middleton Jail has already gone high tech when it comes to using facial recognition software, a move separate from iris scans.
In April 2005, Essex County police departments and law enforcement officials began to use facial recognition software by Billerica-based Viisage Technology Inc. through a $200,000 grant from the federal government.
Later that year, Viisage received a $100 million infusion from L-1 Investment Partners. Viisage then snapped up Iridian Technologies, which pioneered iris recognition technology used by the sheriffs in southeastern Massachusetts. Eventually, Viisage became part of a new company, L-1 Identity Solutions.
Iridian holds the intellectual property licenses on the iris recognition technology. Another L-1 company, SecuriMetrix, provides iris recognition products, including mobile iris recognition devices. An attempt to reach an executive for SecuriMetrix was unsuccessful.
Meanwhile, facial recognition technology has also drawn fire from the American Civil Liberties Union over privacy concerns.
Fleming said he understands there could be similar concerns about the storage of iris scans.
“It would be done on a voluntary basis,” Fleming said. “By no means would people be force to do this or compelled to do this, absolutely not.”
(Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.)
Ethan Forman writes for The Salem (Mass.) News.
All about iris biometrics
A user looks into a device so he can see his reflection
A user can stand from up to 2 feet away from the device
The device can verify the iris in less than 5 seconds
The idea for iris scans was proposed by ophthalmologists Frank Burch in 1936.
In 1987, ophthalmologists Aran Safir and Leonard Flom patented the notion
In 1989, John Daugman, then of Harvard University, patented algorithms for iris recognition in 1994
A company, Iridian Technologies, owns these patents
In 1994, Lancaster County Prison in Pennsylvania was the first to use the system to identify prisoners.
Bookmark/Search this post with:
Bookmark this site
Bookmark this page
Make Us your homepage
