A report by MarketsandMarkets finds that by 2020, iris recognition will have a market size of US$3.6 billion, a CAGR of 23.4 percent between 2015 and that year. One company offers its insights into why iris may see such significant growth.
Iris recognition is a biometrics technology whose accuracy and decreasing cost have made it increasingly popular in government and civilian deployments. In fact, a report by MarketsandMarkets finds that by 2020, iris recognition will have a market size of US$3.6 billion, a compound annual growth rate of 23.4 percent between 2015 and that year.
One company that has devoted its resources to the research and development of iris solutions is the U.S.-based SRI Identity, sensing its growth potential. The company, part of SRI International, manufactures multimodal biometrics solutions combining iris with fingerprint and facial recognition. Among its products, the biometric tablet enrolls people and identifies them based on their face and iris. Its walk-through identity reader, billed as the first of its kind in the market, is a three-in-one device whereby a person’s fingerprint, face, and iris are all captured just by the waving of his hand. The device allows the passing of 30 people per minute and is being deployed at places where high throughput is demanded, such as airports and borders, among others.
Mark Clifton, President of Product and Solutions at SRI Identity, explains what makes iris an ideal biometric identification technology. “Iris is actually better. A single fingerprint has 13 points for identification, so 10 fingers … you might have 130 identifiable points. A single iris has over 250, and two irises have over 500. So the false accept for fingerprint is about one in 100,000, but for a single iris, it's one in 1.4 million. And for two eyes, its one in 1.4 trillion,” he said.
Besides those, iris is ideal in certain situations where fingerprint and facial may not be so suitable. “One of our locations in the Middle East, it's a very large construction company with 35,000 employees, and they use one of our systems for time and attendance. They walk in with their hard hats on, and their hands are dirty, but it doesn't matter. They use their eyes to clock in and clock out,” he said. “And mining companies, where people get very dirty and have breathers and respirators on, iris is another good solution in those applications.”
For a long time iris has seen lackluster performance compared to fingerprint and facial, due mostly to its higher price. But according to Clifton, that’s not the case anymore. “It has been expensive and it's been hard to use. So what we've done is make it easy to use. Obviously, for tablet applications ... it's very inexpensive,” he said.
The company is now thinking about migrating to the residential sector and is in the process of developing a lock that opens with the iris, Clifton said. The lock can then trigger other devices to make the home truly smart.