border crossings

OTTAWA -- The 2002 film Minority Report depicts a society that keeps tabs on its citizens by swiftly scanning their irises when they exit subway cars or enter buildings. The same technology verifies the identity of those authorized to enter restricted areas.

At the time the Stephen Spielberg film was released, the biometric world it depicted still seemed far off. But in the five years since, systems that rely on biometric samples of fingerprints or iris and facial scans to establish identity have become so ubiquitous some suggest we're witnessing the birth of the biometric state.