xVista develops UK's first portable iris scanner
xVista has developed the UK’s first portable iris scanning and verification system, which is small enough to fit into a standard camera phone, creating the possibility of handheld security devices in airports and for secure financial transactions on mobile devices.
xVista’s technology is designed to discreetly and securely map the iris for individual characteristics. The iris is first registered on to a central database creating a template that can be checked against all further scans to verify the user’s identity. With the chances of two separate human irises matching approximately one in 7 billion, it offers the very highest level of security available against identity fraud and has potential applications within passport control, financial transactions and mobile phone security.
The system is capable of running from any low power computing device or camera equipped mobile phone. A standard 256MB mobile phone memory card will be able to hold over 250,000 separate iris templates and from a database of 1,000,000 irises, it will take less than one second for it to verify an individual iris.
According to Karlis Obrams, Managing Director of xVista: "The xVista technology performs a similar task to the traditional signature, photograph or pin number in confirming an individual’s identity, but is far more reliable. The fact that the system can run from portable devices like the mobile phone and SIM card opens up fantastic potential for its use, making it far more effective than other scanning systems that are usually bulky and limited to fixed points."
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