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GTE ID's IriScan for agreement
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By John Wilen – Staff Writer
Dec 22, 1997, 12:00am EST Updated Dec 22, 1997, 12:00am EST
MOUNT LAUREL, N.J. -- Development-stage company IriScan Inc.'s new iris recognition technology received a big vote of confidence recently from an odd quarter: the telephone industry.
GTE Corp., the Stamford, Conn.-based telephone provider, signed a collaborative development agreement with the company that IriScan, while declining to disclose the amount, called "very significant."
The companies will jointly develop applications for fraud-proof electronic commerce transactions based on IriScan's patented technology, officials said. The idea is to create an entire system of computer-based commerce in which people's irises -- the colored rings that surround the pupil of the eye -- are their digital identification cards.
"You're carrying your own circular bar code, so to speak, in your eye," said John Siedlarz, president and chief executive officer of IriScan.
Siedlarz declined to disclose the monetary size of the agreement. He did say the company would receive payments based on performance.
"It's staged so that we go through performance milestones with them," he said.
IriScan's technology essentially lets an electronic device verify a person's identity by scanning his iris. The technology has been developed and patented, Siedlarz said.
"The technology as far as being able to recognize the iris is here today," he said.
What IriScan, a small private company, needs is support from companies like GTE, he said. IriScan has licensed its technology to other companies, including Sensar Inc. of Moorestown and British Telecom. Sensar is developing iris identification systems for automatic teller machines, while BT's agreement is for all aspects of electronic security.
"It's a widening family of both large and small businesses," Siedlarz said.
The GTE agreement is to develop iris identification systems that will ensure secure transactions over the Internet. For a low cost -- $50 to $150 -- a peripheral iris-reading device can be added to a computer, Siedlarz said. The return on the investment is immeasurable, he said: the virtual elimination of fraud.
"This is the first time in history ... that there's the possibility of combining a biometric technology into the certification authority arena," he said.
GTE's BBN Internet subsidiary makes the company a choice partner for the development of such a system, Siedlarz said.
"GTE ... is in a position to take this technology and move it into this environment on a very substantive basis," he said.
GTE officials are equally excited.
"One of the obstacles to the growth of electronic commerce -- especially on the Internet -- is confidence," said Clyde Musgrave, a GTE strategic development executive. "A legitimate concern by business and consumers alike is that transactions are not completely private and that buying over a network can be risky because of hackers."
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IriScan's technology virtually eliminates the possibility of fraud, he said.
"It could create a potential revolution in electronic commerce," Musgrave said. Under such a system, iris identification becomes "the equivalent of the dollar bill in cyberspace."
GTE signed an agreement with IriScan for a very simple reason, Musgrave said: It's the only company with iris recognition technology. |