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Date Posted: 13:44:19 10/31/01 Wed
Author: Shirleym
Subject: Iris IDs are a Reality
In reply to: Shirleym 's message, "Iris IDs are a Reality" on 13:39:52 10/31/01 Wed

October 25, 2001 The New York Times

AMSTERDAM JOURNAL

Security on the Brain, Solutions in the Eyes

By MARLISE SIMONS

AMSTERDAM, Oct. 24 — The machine will look you deep in the eye and record the 250 or so specks you did not know you had. If it recognizes you, it will release a lock and open the gate.

Welcome to Amsterdam airport and its state of the art iris scanner, one of the latest technological gizmos of the security conscious age.

The airport here, among Europe's busiest, is the first major international airport to introduce such a scanner to identify travelers.

Amsterdam airport has always been a bit of a maverick, offering a gambling casino, a sauna, a meditation room and a wealth of other nontravel activities. Now, as creepy as
the device may seem to the uninitiated, the eye scanner has taken up its place at each of the sleek, airy departure and arrival halls.

The airport had planned to introduce the device, as a combined convenience and security measure, even before the Sept. 11 hijackings in the United States heightened
concerns about air safety.

In fact, it took a year of stringent testing with more than 200 airport employees — and some tough wrangling with Dutch immigration authorities and civil libertarians — before the scanner could be introduced.

But since last month's attacks in the United States, experts say, airports and other areas requiring high security are bound to turn more to eye scanners and other sophisticated checking devices.

From now on at Amsterdam airport, holders of a card with the image of their iris captured in a computer code should be able to whip through a special passage and avoid passport control and long lines. All it takes is a few seconds of peering into a video camera, and the computer to recognize that the scanned eye matches the data on the card.

Authorities plan a far wider use as soon as enough equipment is ready. One pilot project is under way in Rotterdam, where 250 asylum seekers have agreed to join a pilot plan to cut paperwork. The government intends to seal the bearer's iris code into passports two years from now.

"It's absolutely harmless, and it will probably appeal to frequent travelers," said Ruud Weever, an airport spokesman. "It's very efficient. The iris offers more information than
any visible part of the body."

Initially, citizens from 18 European countries are eligible to enroll in what the airport is calling the Privium program. For $90, they receive the eye scanning card (good for four years) and other privileges, like faster check-ins and speedier screening of hand luggage. Travelers from outside Europe may be admitted in a year's time, Mr. Weever
said.

By some accounts, verifying a picture of a person's iris, or the colored ring of the eye, is a more fool-proof method of identification than, say, a fingerprint, which can be
damaged, or a passport, which can be falsified.

"Every iris is unique, and your right iris is different from your left," said Max Snijder, one of the designers of the program. "Tests have shown that even identical twins have
different irises."

Mr. Snijder, who is a manager of Enschede Security Solutions, the company that developed the encoded card, said iris scanning was one of the best verification methods available "because it is not invasive" and is "very fast and highly accurate."

The technique is part of the growing field of biometric imaging, in which computers are used to identify someone's unique physical features, like palm prints, facial features
and eye structure.

Marianne de Bie, an official at Amsterdam airport, said the iris identification process begins with an analog camera's taking a detailed picture of the eye of one's choice.

"There is no laser, no damaging light," she said. This image of the iris, which can have 250 or more variables — compared with a fingerprint that may have up to 40 — is converted into a digital code.

That code is stored on a chip on a single smart card, which is given to the individual. "There is no database, no server storing this information," Mr. Snijder said. "This is
how we solved the privacy issue in the Netherlands. Other people do it differently, but here people were concerned about protecting the data."

Members of the Privium program take a separate entrance, where they put the smart card in a slot and briefly look into a video camera.

"When the computer finds that the eyes looking at the camera match the code on the card, you will be recognized," Mr. Weever said. "That will unlock a revolving door and you are through. It will take maybe 10 seconds or so." Security officials will monitor the process on site.

John Daugman, a British computer scientist who developed the technique to codify the iris, said he thought this and other biometric identification methods would become more widespread because they were more reliable than traditional methods.

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Replies:

[> [> Oh, that's interesting in deed! I'd like to hear some thoughts on why this is not a good thing. -- PJ, 15:04:24 10/31/01 Wed


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[> [> [> Personally, I think it's a good thing. The first time I get to use that kind of technology... ride on a magnetic train that doesn't touch the rails... or see a person walk who never would have without it, I'll be more than thrilled. One of the great things about this country IMHO, is that if TPTB go too far in curtailing our liberties, we have the power to turn it around. Watta country. :D -- Shirleym, 04:55:50 11/02/01 Fri


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[> [> [> [> I'm wondering if our ideas about what's public and what's private will undergo a change. If AI eventually takes over the function of sifting through security data (as I think it will), then perhaps people won't mind as much as they would if a real person were doing the snooping. -- Susan W, 22:52:35 11/04/01 Sun


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[> [> [> Re: Oh, that's interesting in deed! I'd like to hear some thoughts on why this is not a good thing. -- Luis Arturo berlin, 16:15:18 12/21/01 Fri

I'd like to know who sells these miniature magnetic trains, and their costs, more or less.

I find this idea terrific, and I plan to put one in my new home, with stations in different rooms and little wall openings to let the train pass.

I understand they are very quiet and it seems to me nothing can beat the spectacle of this things moving fastly and silentli throughout my home, stopping in different places.

Luis Arturo


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