CHAIN 4
LENGTH 3 REPETITION 0.6666666 SCORE 1.9999999
voice-recognition 1 iris-recognition 2
OPTICS A Discerning Eye In the James Bond movie , " Never Say Never Again , " a camera zooms up to a character to identify him by the unique appearance of his eye .
At that time , there was no device that could accomplish such a thing .
But now Sensar , a subsidiary of the David Sarnoff Research Center , has announced a $25.8 - million agreement with OKI Electric Industry Ltd. in Tokyo , one of the world 's leading suppliers of automated teller machines ( ATMs ) .
This means iris recognition could be coming to an ATM near you .
Unlike signature verification , voice recognition or fingerprinting , iris recognition requires little cooperation .
A person simply walks up to the machine and inserts his or her bankcard .
Meanwhile an ordinary video camera captures an image of the customer 's right or left eye .
This image is converted into a digital code , which is compared with one already stored for that individual .
If the system perceives a match , the customer can proceed .
The process takes about five seconds .
Although color is the first thing we notice about someone 's eyes , recognition is based only on immutable structures of the iris .
These include the trabecular meshwork of connective tissue , collagenous stromal fibers , ciliary processes , contraction furrows , crypts , vasculature , rings , corona , coloration and freckles .
As with fingerprints , most of these characteristics are established by random processes before birth , says John G. Daugman of the Computer Laboratory at the University of Cambridge , who developed the algorithm behind the process .
The iris 's pattern - - which is different in each eye - - appears to persist virtually unchanged throughout life .
Even identical twins have unique iris morphology .
What is more , no prosthesis can defeat the system because it detects the minute pulsations and pupil changes that indicate living tissue , contends Sensar 's Kevin B. McQuade .
Experts in high security have shown a keen interest in iris - based identification: McQuade speaks in hushed tones about inquiries from the Central Intelligence Agency .
Frank Bouchier of the Security Systems and Technology Center at Sandia National Laboratories tested an early version on 199 eyes and found zero false accepts and less than 5 percent false rejects .
The first ATMs equipped with iris recognition are expected by the end of this year .
And if the technology catches on , it could protect users of " smart " cards .
The customer 's iris code could be stored on the card , and the merchant would be unable to access the data unless the customer - - or more precisely , the customer 's eye - - were present .