Security is a major concern in the modern technological era whereas we have invented many security gadgets to protect our valuable items like Bio-metric scanner. As we know human beings are not getting settled for anything. We are excepting something more secure. Now, here Iris scanner comes into role.  This gadget is already being used in airports and military bases where a fast and reliable security system is a major concern. Iris scanner is another form of Bio-metric scanning system. What is the Iris scanner and what is engineering inside this gadget? Let’s find out here.

What is an Iris Scanner?

Iris scanner is a gadget that is using visible and near-infrared light spectrum to take a high-contrast photograph of the iris. It is a form of biometric technology in the same category as face recognition. This technology allows law enforcement officers to compare iris images of suspects with an existing database of images in order to determine a person’s identity. Iris scanning raises several privacy-related concerns which means that data could be collected mutely. It means that an individual will never know that his or her identity got stolen. In the view of security concerns, if a database of biometrics is compromised then it is not possible to get new or change his or her biometric information.

Uniqueness in Iris Scans:

Iris scanning is a unique technique to identify someone. Inside the eye, the iris is the colored ring of muscle that opens and shuts the pupil of the eye in the same way as the old shutter camera. The colored pattern of our irises is designed genetically. It comes from our ancestors. The pattern of both eyes of a person is quite different from each other and. Also, genetically identical twins have different iris patterns, which is unique.

Working of Iris Scanner:

An iris scanner uses two stages to identify the iris of the eyes. These are Enrollment and Verification.

Enrollment – Taking a snapshot of your eye:

This is the first stage of iris scanning. If you want to identify someone by iris scan then we have to store a snapshot of his or her eye into your iris-scanning system. So, each person must go through one time photographing of their eyes. This photographing procedure is endorsed in standard lighting and invisible infrared light. Infrared light is used in night vision gadgets that have long-wavelength as compared to other visible light spectrums. An iris scan system of infrared light helps to recognize the unique pattern of darker eyes more accurately, which is more challenging to do in normally visible light spectrums.

After taking a snapshot of the iris, system software processes it and identifies around 200 unique features in every store human eye image (this unique feature is five times more than a fingerprint scanning system). The computer system of the iris scanner stores this information with some unique value numbers along with specific iris codes. The enrollment step is completely automatic and it takes less than five minutes.

Verification – Confirmation of the authenticity of the eye:

Once the snapshot is stored in the database, your identification process by using iris becomes easy and hassle-free. The person just needs to stands in front of an iris scanner connected to the database. The scanner again takes the picture of the iris and matches it with the store image. The system quickly analyzes the resulting image, extracting an iris code from it. It starts the comparison or matching process by comparing thousands, or even millions of stored iris codes available in the database. If the scanned iris image code matches with one of the stored codes entered in the database then the person is positively identified otherwise the taken snapshot is not familiar to the system, or the person is merely impersonating.

An iris scanner has three main components:

1. Camera
2. Processing unit
3. Database

Camera: The camera unit is responsible to take snapshots or images of the iris. These cameras are specifically designed to work with infrared light.

Processing unit: The processing unit is the central point of the iris scanning system. After taking the picture of the iris camera sends it to the processing unit. Here present software converts the digital image into some specific iris codes to store it in a database or compare it with pre-stored data.

Database: This unit is a kind of memory in s iris-scanning system. Whatever data you want to store in the system is, here it is being stored.

Merits With Demerits of Iris Scanner:

The characteristics of an iris are unique for each individual and even between left and right eyes – both eyes are having different iris patterns. Being a highly accurate way of identifying people, there are many advantages of the technology like high accuracy, contactless verification, flexible and scalable system, fast matching, and more. But nothing is perfect in this world. Iris scanning system contains some demerits also. For iris verification you should be too close to a scanning camera, huge memory size to store data, and this system is costly.

Applications:

Identifying people by the pattern of the iris of the eye is normal at security-related places. At some points, it still lags behind other biometric technologies. Nowadays, the use of such technologies is most often performed in security systems. Similar to control and management of access to the protected object when crossing state or country borders and restricting access to electronic sources, several personal gadgets, banking accounts, etc. In the modern techno era, the iris scanning application is expanding, although its potential is just beginning to unfold.

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