Iris recognition - a new game of eye spy to speed the passenger's journey
Government wants system in 10 British airports by next year
Owen Bowcott
Tuesday July 29, 2003
The Guardian 
A subject looks into a camera which displays her iris for identification at a computer fair in Germany. Photograph: Fabian Bimmer/AP
Iris-recognition machines, which can identify people by reading the distinctive pattern surrounding the pupil of the eye, are to be installed at 10 British airports within a year.
The contract for the Iris Recognition Immigration System (Iris) has been advertised by the Home Office, but its final approval will depend upon the cost. It is being introduced as part of the government's drive to encourage biometric surveillance.
The programme builds on a trial at Heathrow last year, and is likely to be focused in its initial phase on international commuters. Scanning cameras linked to a database will confirm the identity of previously enrolled passengers and lift automatic barriers, speeding them past immigration queues.
The decision to press ahead with a large-scale system is a significant boost for a British invention.
Since al-Qaida's terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, the security industry has been refining and promoting the technology of biometric testing.
The public debate on immigration, the push for identity cards and the problems of electronic fraud have sharpened government interest in improved border controls and foolproof documentation.
Although police forces continue to use fingerprints, iris recognition technology is gaining ground because of its reliability. Already it is being employed to prevent the wrong prisoners being freed from US jails and to stop returning Afghan refugees double claiming allowances.
This summer cameras were installed at the Venerable Bede secondary school in Sunderland to scan children's eyes, ensuring that those who have allergies receive the correct food and to avoid drawing attention to those who are entitled to free meals.
It may soon become part of our daily lives. Its future depends on its popular acceptance and whether the cameras are regarded as too intrusive.
Each human iris has a unique pattern - even identical twins are dissimilar - and the image can easily be recorded by camera and stored on computer.
The idea of using patterns in the iris for personal identification emerged as early as the 1930s. The breakthrough came with the development of a mathematical algorithm by John Daugman at Cambridge University.
The 1994 patent was taken up by Iridian, an American technology company. Mr Daugman's encoding system is the basis for most of the iris-recognition products now in use.
"All existing biometrics are capable of being spoofed," Mr Daugman told the Guardian. "But ours is the hardest to [fool]. There's general agreement that as far as accuracy goes, other biometrics cannot compete with us. I have done 11 million [iris] matches ... none have been false."
The six-month trial at Heathrow last year was on a relatively modest scale. About 800 frequent flyers on British Airways and Virgin Atlantic had their iris images recorded.
"[It] proved an effective and robust technology in a live airport environment," the Department of Trade and Industry concluded.
"The average time taken of around 12 seconds to be admitted by immigration under the iris system proved a substantial reduction on the norm."
The Home Office's tender document calls for a central database to store accumulated data as "part of the drive to modernise and improve the effectiveness of UK borders".
"The initial implementation of Iris will include installation of entry barriers and enrolment stations at 10 sites within the UK plus the ability to undertake mobile enrolments at other locations within the UK," it says.
The Home Office said the 10 sites would be Britain's main airports, but would not specify which ones.
The drive to get Iris up and running suggests there is support for iris-recognition technology but no decisions have yet been taken on whether to incorporate it into either passports or what the government has termed "entitlement" cards - that is, identity cards.
Those decisions are likely to depend on the cost of launching a national enrollment programme. The Treasury is thought to be opposed. The government has announced that the cost of a new passport will shortly rise from £33 to £42 to pay for the incorporation of some form of biometric record.
"The main cost element is the process of registering everyone's biometrics," said Tony Mansfield, of the government biometric working group.
Earlier this summer the Home Office minister Beverley Hughes said: "Biometrics provide a much more secure way of confirming someone's identity.
"We are working towards the wider use of physical data like fingerprints or iris recognition in all parts of the immigration process and have already announced our intention to include biometrics in UK passports by 2005."
Research into biometrics is also the subject of increasingly close cooperation between Britain and the US.
In April David Blunkett, the British home secretary, and Tom Ridge, the US secretary of homeland security, set up a joint contact group of senior officials.
One of its priorities is "closer working on the development of biometric technology such as iris and facial recognition".
Not everyone is convinced. The Belgian government recently introduced a new identity card system but chose not to include biometric technology.
"It's all about the Americans wanting to have post-9/11 security on their borders," said Bart Vansevenant, whose company, Ubizen, designed the Belgian cards.
"If someone is not already down on the database as a suspect, then an iris-recognition system won't stop a terrorist coming through passport control."
