ID cards and iris codes

[Ross Anderson]

> Anderson suggests that there would be no technical barrier to build
> scanners capable of automatic recognition of individuals passing in a
> crowd.

Printed contact lenses.

Look, the issues involed in biometrics are complex; rather than trying
to cut soundbites and reason from them, better go back and read chapter
13 of my book.

There's nothing intrinsically wrong with iris scanning; it's just that
biometric applications in general are best suited to small-scale,
attended operations. For example, I tried to get iris scanners for
entry control to our new computer lab building. It would have meant I
didn't have to fumble for a card while carrying an armful of books;
just look at the lock. (BTW the reason we didn't buy it is that the
currently available implementations are immature. The scanners are
expensive and they haven't been integrated with the commodity entry
control software supplied with people like Chubb. However, give the
market a year or two, and that will get fixed.)

Ross