An important component of home-and security is preventing threats from reaching U.S. soil. To properly recognize potentially dangerous people at U.S. ports of entry, authorities must have confidence in their ability to correctly identify travelers bound for the United States. The problem hinges on linking a traveler to a single, traceable identity. The Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act of 2002 mandates the incorporation of biometrics into visas by 2006.
The choice of biometrics will determine the overall effectiveness of the system, public perception of the program, and the implementation and operation costs. Many, including Russell Neuman of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, believe that iris recognition may be the biometric technology best suited to the travel document application because of the stability and uniqueness of the human iris.
Iris recognition systems capture an infrared image of the iris and identify an individual based on the pattern. Neuman believes that because of potential user discomfort with eye-based technology and the long tradition of using faces to identify people, the politically viable path forward may be to frame iris recognition as a form of facial recognition. At Neuman's request, I developed a paper on the topic...