posted 02-19-2004 04:42 PM            

What cracked me up in this article was the following statement: Many put into effect or looked into secondary security checks such as card readers and biometric devices, but civil libertarians and privacy advocates decry such experiments as invasive. Well, I'd say that iris scanning is even more invasive than card readers! Wonder if the civil liberties groups will be able to stop this? yeah right!

http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-5158973.html

Iris scanning to begin at German airport

By Dinesh C. Sharma
CNET News.com
February 13, 2004, 11:05 AM PT

A test of an iris-scanning system is set to begin Saturday at the Frankfurt, Germany, airport, as part of a project involving 18 European countries.

Airline passengers will be required to stand in front of an identification device whose cameras will automatically capture images of their iris patterns, companies participating in the trial said Friday. The iris systems--seven of which have been installed at the airport--will then identify the passenger's iris and match that information with the passport data captured by a scanner. If successful, the iris system could replace conventional systems for checking identity at airport immigration counters.

Initially, residents of European Union countries and Switzerland who fly frequently with Lufthansa will be able to take part in the trial at the main Frankfurt airport, after getting their iris data registered. Full-scale service will be launched after the six-month trial, according to Byometric Systems and Oki Electric Industry, companies implementing the project.

Following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States, airlines and high-tech companies launched a number of high-profile security experiments. Many put into effect or looked into secondary security checks such as card readers and biometric devices, but civil libertarians and privacy advocates decry such experiments as invasive.

"It must be guaranteed that the registered biometric characteristic can be matched absolutely correctly," Otto Schily, Germany's minister of the interior, said in a statement. "Iris recognition is currently considered to be the most secure biometric system."

posted 02-19-2004 10:29 PM            

OOOOOOOOOH! SCI FI iris scanning!

It's no less weird than the finger print scanner, is it?

Don't worry, professor, most won't be trading eyeballs! LOL!

Well, didn't we see this coming? No pun intended! Har Har!

posted 02-19-2004 10:54 PM            

Yep.....the consumerist drones will say "Hooray!! How convenient!!! NO more casH! "Now I can walk out of the crocery store without checking out!"

YEAH...the IRIS SCANNER...scans your EYE on the way out of the store....and sents the DATA into the FEDERAL DATABASE...keeping track of what you eat, buy, read...EVERYTHING.

Its happening RIGHT NOW.
The RFID chips are already going in all WAL-MART products.

posted 02-19-2004 11:16 PM            

quote:

---

Originally posted by Mech:
Its happening RIGHT NOW.
The RFID chips are already going in all WAL-MART products.

---

That reminds me of an article I stumbled across the other day about a guy that found a chip embedded in a shirt he purchased A COUPLE OF YEARS AGO from Wal-Mart!
http://www.rense.com/general48/manfindssurprise.htm

posted 02-20-2004 11:31 AM            

Customs set to use iris scans at airports
15.02.2002
By DAVID AKIN

Canada Customs will begin using iris scanners this summer to speed air travellers through the country's busiest airports.

The Canada Customs and Revenue Agency will announce in early April the company that will get the contract to install kiosks equipped with iris-recognition devices in eight of Canada's busiest international airports, industry sources said.

The kiosks would allow some Canadian travellers, when they get off a plane, to move through a customs checkpoint in 30 seconds or less by confirming their identities with quick scans of their irises.

The iris is the eye's coloured portion, which surrounds the pupil. An iris scanner takes a highly detailed picture of the iris, which is analyzed by a computer.

The computer notes the iris's patterns, lines, striations, pits and freckles. Like other anatomical identifiers, such as fingerprints, scientists believe no two individuals have the same iris pattern.

After a traveller's identity is verified with the iris scan, the kiosk, in the customs' arrival area, would prompt the person to declare any goods brought into the country and pay any applicable duties. Users of the service would still be subject to random inspections.

Canada Customs likely would charge an annual fee of $50 to $100 for travellers who want to use its stand-alone express service, according to industry sources.

Those who want to use the service would submit to a background security check, including a criminal-record search.

Canada Customs said it would allow Americans who visit Canada frequently to sign up for the service. It expects that later, Mexican travellers - Mexico being the third signatory to the North American free-trade agreement - could use it.

Airports in Toronto and Vancouver would be the first to install the kiosks, as early as August, said representatives of some of the companies bidding for the contract.

Kiosks would be installed at the airports in Halifax, Montreal, Ottawa, Winnipeg, Edmonton and Calgary by the end of 2003.

Officially, Canada Customs said it would roll out the kiosks in December, but vendors who have submitted bids have been told to be prepared to install the first kiosks this summer.

"They have a pretty aggressive timetable for this one," said an official with a company bidding for the work. Fearing loss of the contract, several potential vendors would speak only on condition of anonymity.

"The implementation of iris-recognition biometric technology will be a major step in improving security for the customs- and immigration-clearance processes at Canada's major international airports," said Michel Proulx of the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency. "This technology is highly reliable."

Just one U.S. airport uses iris-scanning technology to screen passengers, but the vendors believe that if Canada's major airports could make the systems work, major U.S. airports - and, by extension, the world's busiest airports - would soon follow.

Since the Sept. 11 attacks, immigration and security officials in many parts of the world, but particularly in the United States, have examined several biometric technologies.

Canada Customs decided, after an internal review, to use iris scanners rather than other biometric identifiers such as fingerprints, face-recognition systems and retina scans.

The International Air Transport Association, based in Geneva, has indicated that scanning eyes is its preferred biometric choice. [Note this is mis-reported - IATA has not specified a particular biometric for use by airlines.]

One important factor for the IATA is that using the eye as an individual's unique identifier appears to be the most socially neutral. A Muslim woman could be identified, for example, without touching her or asking her to drop her veil.

"It is a relatively easy to use iris-scanning to verify someone is who they claim to me, if you can compare a current picture of their iris to a previously scanned picture of the person they claim to be," said David Jones, a computer scientist at McMaster University in Hamilton.

Pilot projects using iris-scanning technology in airports were launched this year at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam and at Heathrow Airport in London.

At Schiphol, frequent flyers who want to use the express service incorporating iris scans pay about $89 (U.S.) a year for the privilege. In addition to the express customs service, subscribers gain free parking at the airport, the use of a special travellers' lounge, priority check-ins and other perks.

The Canadian project is not worth a great deal of money. Canada Customs refuses to say how big it would be, although industry sources believe it would be less than $10-million.

posted 02-21-2004 08:26 AM               

Thanks from me to JerseyBlueEyes! We have to fly out of there when we on leave here in a month or two. You woud happen to have an idea what airlines are feilding this new
Iris Scanning system would you?

posted 02-21-2004 01:10 PM            

I did a quick search and found an article with some additional information. I would think that Military Personnel would be a prime target for something like this, but it looks like you have to be a citizen of Switzerland or the EU (or so they say). I also wonder if they're bribing the guinea pigs in Germany like they plan to in Canada?

http://edition.cnn.com/2004/TECH/ptech/02/16/irisscan.airport.ap/

German airport introduces iris scan
Monday, February 16, 2004 Posted: 2126 GMT ( 5:26 AM HKT)

BERLIN, Germany (AP) -- Travelers at Frankfurt airport, continental Europe's busiest, can now enter Germany with a three-second scan of their eyes, providing they sign up for a test project for iris recognition technology.

Passengers in the six-month program still go through regular security controls, but can bypass conventional passport checks. They can simply put their passport though a scanner, take a quick look at a camera and a few seconds later enter the country, airport officials said.

To qualify, passengers would need background checks by German border police, a machine-readable passport, be citizens of the European Union or Switzerland, register at the airport and have an iris scan on file.

The test is part of efforts in many countries, especially the United States in the wake of the September 11 attacks, to extend the use of biometric technology -- using fingerprint, eye or facial recognition scans -- to track travelers and immigrants, while also cutting down on time spent in line.

(Jersey: It's interesting they mention the efforts of the U.S. - especially since there is NO MENTION of U.S. involvement that I could find as far as research, installation, projection dates, etc.!)

"Iris recognition is at this time the most secure biometric," Interior Minister Otto Schily, Germany's top security official said in launching the test last week. "That's why we chose it for the Frankfurt airport pilot project."

Byometric Systems of Mitterfelden, Germany, and Tokyo-based Oki Electric Industry are providing the service through contractor Bosch Security Systems. They hope to have full-scale service in place after a six-month test.

Germany passed laws after September 11 attacks that provide for biometric features to be added to passports and personal identity papers.