BlackBerry to offer eye-recognition function

It might sound like a sci-fi gizmo, but Research in Motion now plans to offer iris-recognition functionality in some of its BlackBerry devices to transmit your identity.

Blackberry-Phones

Canadian mobile making firm Research in Motion now plans to offer iris-recognition functionality in some of its BlackBerry devices.

In partnership with Iris ID and HID Global, companies offering secure identity solutions, RIM has announced that it is supporting the use of a biometric template from Iris ID.

According to The Los Angeles Times, this means one could use their Blackberry instead of an employee ID card to open doors at work.

Embedded iCLASS technology would serve as a digital credential and allow NFC-enabled BlackBerry 7 smartphones to transmit your identity when held up to an iCAM7000 iris camera.

NFC means near field communications, which enables devices to have contactless transactions or exchange data just by being in proximity of each other.

In simple words, the new technology can take the place of a physical ID card.

According to the IrisID site, a person is positioned about three to 14 inches from the iris camera, and a digital video is taken of her/his iris.

Then, still images are captured from the video using a frame grabber, and an algorithm analyzes patterns in the iris that are visible between the pupil and white of the eye and converts them into a 512-byte digital template.

That's what''s stored in a database and transferred at areas where you have access privileges, and, in about two seconds, you''re identified without using PINs, passwords or access cards.

No eyes needed in the process, all required is just your NFC-enabled BlackBerry.

According to the report, this technology is often mistakenly called "iris-scanning", but there''s no scanning involved in iris recognition.