Imagine a public scanner that can identify 50 people in motion every minute. And this is already happening in a city with government endorsement. And it is only the beginning. City of Leon in Mexico installs iris scanners from the company Eyelock, formerly known as Global Rainmakers Inc. For these scanners to work, people don’t have to stop in front of cameras to have their eyes scanned – the technology works in real time, while people walk down the street.
There are different types of systems installed in Leon, from the larger scanner – capable of identifying 50 people moving per minute – to the smaller one – which can scan between 15 and 30 people per minute. These devices are installed in public places such as train and bus stations, and connected to a database that will track people throughout the city.
City officials and supporters of the system hope that the iris scan system will stop the crime and fraud. The iris scanning for the one million residents of the city of Leon started with convicted criminals. Citizens without criminal records were given the opportunity to have their eyes scanned “voluntarily.” But this is just the beginning. According to Jeff Carter, CDO of Eyelock, everyone on the planet will be connected to the iris tracking system in about ten years.
“In the future, whether it’s entering your home, opening your car, entering your workspace, getting a pharmacy prescription refilled, or having your medical records pulled up, everything will come off that unique key that is your iris,” said Carter. “Every person, place, and thing on this planet will be connected [to the iris system] within the next 10 years,” he added.
The system is already used by big companies in the U.S. such as Google X labs or Bank of America, and a number of airports in the world. Anthony Antolino, marketing manager of Eyelock, the company providing eye scanning systems, says that only DNA is better than the iris scan in identifying a person. He said that the company hopes to have the technology integrated in 2015 in mobile phones, tablets and laptops.
Correction to the initial article: Eyelock and Global Rainmakers are different names for the same company.
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