Eyeball-Scanning iPhone Used by Cops to ID Suspects
An iPhone-based device will soon let police forces identify within seconds a suspect based on facial features, fingerprints, or now the unique features of the human eye.
The blocky device, dubbed MORIS, attaches to the back of an Apple iPhone. To use the iris scan, a police officer holds the phone's camera about 6 inches from the suspect's face and snaps a close-up of the eye. The software analyzes over 200 unique features and, if the suspect's scan is already in a database, an algorithm matches them, and identifies the suspect.
The database is maintained by the vendor, B12 Technologies, Plymouth, Mass. To use facial recognition, the officer snaps a photo from 2 to 5 feet away. Using software from Animetrics, MORIS analyzes over 100 unique features, and compares them to similar scans in the database. There's also an integrated fingerprint scanner.