New Iris Recognition Study Confirms Superior Performance in Large Database Applications

MOORESTOWN, N.J., Dec. 19, 2002 -- Iridian Technologies today announced the results of a new iris recognition study, based on 983 million matches, that further confirms false accept rates of approximately one in one million in extremely large enrollment databases.

Together with the low false reject rates of Iridian's imagers, these results place iris recognition as the most accurate of all biometrics. The anonymous study was conducted by Iridian and was based on nearly 120,000 iris templates collected from operational installations around the world that included physical access, corrections, border crossing and other applications. These templates were used in a "probe vs. target" match scenario to generate an imposter distribution composed of 983,726,000 matches.

With this large number of samples it was possible to determine the false accept rate for large database applications without relying on statistical modeling of the distribution.

"Private and public sector organizations responsible for border crossing, simplified passenger travel and national identity programs have been clamoring for detailed iris recognition performance metrics when dealing with databases numbering in the millions of records," said Dr. Jim Cambier, Vice President of Research for Iridian Technologies. "These results support Iridian's long-held statistical projection of false accept rates of one in one million. Because those estimated error rates are orders of magnitude better than all other biometrics, iris recognition has achieved the reputation of most accurate biometric. These low false accept rates enable one-to-many or one-to-all identification applications and detection of duplicate enrollments."

False accept rates for iris recognition have been measured regularly on ever-larger database sizes since 1996.

Previously false accept estimates were obtained by compiling imposter distributions composed of up to 9.1 million matches (see study by Dr. John Daugman, OBE at www.cl.cam.ac.uk/users/jgd1000/binomdata.html) , fitting a binomial model to these distributions, and predicting operational false accept performance from the "best fit" binomial distributions.

To obtain a copy of Iridian's Cross Comparison Test fill out the request form at www.iridiantech.com/news.php.

About Iris Recognition Technology

Iris recognition technology identifies people by the unique patterns of the iris - the colored ring around the pupil of the eye. Iris recognition is the highest-accuracy, single-factor identification method in the world.

Iridian's patented Private ID(TM) technology includes camera drivers for IrisCode(R) creation using standard video technology without bright lights or lasers. KnoWho(TM) Authentication Server is Iridian's highly scalable server that provides interoperability for all Private ID-enabled cameras and applications.

This one-to-all security solution ensures individual authentication against millions of records, and is ideal for public-use applications such as border control or simplified passenger travel.

Iris recognition technology from Iridian Technologies examines more than 240 degrees of freedom in the human iris to create the patented IrisCode record, a 512-byte data template used to identify individuals and/or authenticate user privileges. Iris recognition technology is the most accurate, scalable, stable, fast and non-invasive biometric technology in the world.

About Iridian Technologies

Iridian Technologies, Inc. of Moorestown, NJ leads the world in research, development and marketing of authentication technologies based on iris recognition - the most accurate biometric identifier.

Holder of exclusive US and international patents on the core concepts and technologies behind iris recognition, Iridian offers unparalleled security for public-use applications such as simplified passenger travel and border control, restricted access and information access.

With blue-chip investors and Fortune 1000 customers in transportation, government, healthcare and security, Iridian Technologies is committed to providing the authentication infrastructures critical for today's rapidly evolving physical and information security needs and for tomorrow's wireless world. For more information, visit www.iridiantech.com.

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      CONTACT: Iridian Technologies, Inc., Moorestown
               Lina Page, 856/222-3102
               lpage@iridiantech.com