Beyond vision

Our eyes are beautiful and intriguing - indeed they are said to be "the windows of the soul". This digitally modified photograph suggests ways of seeing the eye that go beyond our own normal vision.
Iris recognition systems do just that - they can see and record the unique, irregular patterns in our irises and compare them to millions of others in seconds. These personal identification systems deploy high-technology scanners, computer vision and pattern recognition to generate unique biological signatures. They are considered the most reliable single factor identification system in the world. This biometric technology negates the need for security tools that can be lost, stolen or forgotten such as keys, cards, passwords and PINs.
Now we can access a huge range of different security applications with only our eyes, including airport access and immigration control, access to databases, matching mothers and babies in maternity suites, national ID cards and all sorts of online transactions.
This technology was first developed by John Daugman at Cambridge University.