Iris Recognition

Iris recognition, as the name suggests, is a biometric verification method that utilizes the unique pattern of each person’s iris, the colored circular structure in the eye, to confirm one’s identity. More explicitly, the authentication process is realized by scanning an iris at a reasonable distance with a near-infrared light and comparing the acquired template to the already existing templates in the database system.

Similar to face recognition and fingerprinting, iris recognition uses human biological characteristics to distinguish one person from the others, however, it is more reliable than the prior two technologies by the immanent attributes of eye’s iris, and these inherent advantages call our attention to privacy and security concerns that have emerged gradually as iris recognition has wider applications and more popularity over time.

Advantage

Firstly, even though it is still a mystery of whether it is less likely for two people to have the same iris patterns than to have the same fingerprints or very similar face features, iris recognition leaves less room for deceit because it is comparably harder to change iris without seriously damaging eyes. In contrast, along the history of plastic surgery, the first documentation of surgical method applied to help people recover from injuries can be dated back to more than four thousand years ago, and within the recent decades cosmetic surgery techniques have matured and more people have adopted cosmetic surgeries to change or improve their facial appearances. The advancement of this field offers an opportunity for ill-intended people to successfully sneak through checkpoints for criminals. In terms of the flaws of using fingerprints for identification, there are multiple ways of altering one’s fingerprints. FBIs have caught hundreds of suspects who tried to alter their distinctive marks at their fingertips by deep cuts, burning, biting, and using sandpaper to avoid detection.

Reference

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iris_recognition
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic_surgery
https://www.forensicmag.com/article/2015/05/fbi-warns-about-altered-fingerprints