Nov 8 2012
Iris recognition has long been enjoying a reputation of excellent accuracy and is becoming an increasingly important biometric identification technology. According to MarketsandMarkets' Global Biometrics Technology Market (2010-2015) report, iris recognition is growing at a compound annual rate of 27.5 percent, likely due to increasingly affordable and portable iris cameras.
Today, IriTech, Inc. in cooperation with Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) announced the IriShield™ iris recognition camera powered by TI's TMS320C6748 DSP with the aim of further boosting up the iris biometrics growth. Starting at the low cost of $110 in 5,000-unit quantities, the IriShield™ camera maximizes system security of applications requiring secure access and identification, including mobile banking, time and attendance, and point of sale systems. With a form factor smaller than half a credit card, the camera module can be integrated seamlessly into customers' existing product lines with any operating system at a low cost.
Maximize system security at a low cost
The IriShield™ camera features IriTech's superior iris matching and iris image quality assessment algorithms, proven by the National Institute of Standards and Technology's (NIST's) IREX tests, to provide good quality images and avoid false positives while maximizing true positive identification rates. The embedded algorithms running on TI's C6748 DSP, designed to accelerate computationally intensive functions, can complete a matching query against 1,000 stored templates in 750 milliseconds. In addition, with IriTech's on-board PKI-like security infrastructure and the DSP's ability to ensure the algorithm's integrity, sensitive data are completely secured in both storage and communication. Also, the camera leverages TI's extensive and highly integrated analog IC portfolio to reduce power consumption and cost.
"TI's DSPs offer parallel processing of computationally intensive algorithms to enable real-time biometrics access control and identification systems," said Matt Kurtz, business manager, Singlecore DSP, TI. "In addition, our C6748 DSP offers a variety of integrated security features to safeguard proprietary algorithms and sensitive user data, giving both systems developers and users the ultimate in security."
Various package choices and pricing
The IriShield™ family is offered in three different packages:
- Chip & camera set: Essential components are provided separately as the most cost-effective option, suitable for customers with sophisticated manufacturing capability.
- Module: All components are assembled on a single board smaller than half a credit card in size, ready to be integrated seamlessly into customers' existing product lines.
- Encased device: This is a complete and ready-to-use iris camera, which is highly portable and fashionable looking, ideal for biometric service providers or value-added resellers to develop application systems.
All three packages come with an out-of-the-box demo that can be up and running within minutes and a fully featured and productized application-programming interface (API) that helps developers quickly and easily access embedded iris recognition functionality from any host processor.
The module product is now available starting at $110 in 5,000-unit quantities — the lowest price in the industry with unit pricing of $180. Significant discounts are available for higher volumes.