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    1. Access & Identity
    2. Biometrics

    IriTech Settles Patent Complaint with Iridian Technologies

    Sept. 16, 2004
    Northern Virginia Firm Clears Major Hurdle to Begin Offering its Technology to Government and Commercial Users

    VIENNA, Va. -- Northern Virginia Firm Clears Major Hurdle to Begin Offering its Technology to Government and Commercial Users Worldwide IriTech, Inc., one of only a small number of companies in the world that holds patents for iris recognition algorithms, announced that long-standing patent litigation cases in the U.S.A. and U.K. brought by competitor Iridian Technologies in November 2002 ended in April of this year in the U.S.A. and in June in the U.K. by a settlement on terms mutually agreeable to both parties.

    As government and commercial entities continue to gravitate towards iris biometrics, IriTech has seen an increase in demand for its technology. Major government border control programs that may require iris biometrics, such as the US Government's US-VISIT and the United Kingdom's e-Borders program, have also accelerated industry interest in iris biometric security. The ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) has recently selected iris identification as one of three biometric technologies to be adopted for international travel documents.

    "This vote of confidence is testimony not only to the credibility and importance of iris recognition technology but also to its maturity and readiness for application today," said IriTech CEO Dr. Daniel Kim.

    The algorithm developed by IriTech addresses many of the difficulties in iris identification caused by less than optimal input images that inevitably must be taken in various adverse conditions. IriTech's patent has effects until 2019. According to Dr. Kim, the company uses a variable multi-sector analytic method that selectively utilizes the good portions only of the captured image. "Even if the image of the eye is adversely affected by eye glasses, contact lenses, tears, eyelids, or eyelashes, IriTech's technology can operate with no discernible performance degradation as long as at least 50% of the image sectors are good at the time of registration and at least 25% are good at the time of identification," said Dr. Kim.