FC: Pentagon test finds iris, face scan technology not that reliable

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

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http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,50470,00.html

   Scanning Tech a Blurry Picture
   By Declan McCullagh and Robert Zarate
   2:00 a.m. Feb. 16, 2002 PST
   
   ARLINGTON, Virginia -- Iris-scanning and face-matching technologies
   don't work nearly as well as their manufacturers have claimed, the
   Department of Defense has discovered.
   
   In a 270-person pilot program at the Army Research Laboratory, the
   Pentagon tested iris recognition technology from Iridian for 26 weeks
   and the Visionics FaceIt system for 13 weeks. Iridian claims a 99.5
   percent success rate, and Visionics predicts solid face-matches 75 to
   99.3 percent of the time.
   
   The results: Reality didn't match the hype.
   
   At a biometrics conference on Friday, Defense Department official
   Steven King said that of the 270 persons checked by the Visionics
   system, it correctly recognized individuals a mere 51 percent of the
   time, and identified an individual to within a range of 10
   participants 81 percent of the time. The supposedly more reliable
   Iridian eye-scanners, meanwhile, correctly verified someone's identity
   just 94 percent of the time.

   [...]



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