Cons of Retinal Scanning

Retinal scan technology has several drawbacks. One the one hand, it has been proven that retinal scanning is health harmful in a long-term basis. While the low light level might be harmless, the retinal identification might hurt the retina. Besides, the retina is susceptible to disease that can change the characteristics of the eye. Moreover, because eyeglasses has to be removed for a retinal scanning, people who suffer from severe astigmatism might be unable to fix the light targets in the camera, which would entail to a biased and invalid scanning results.

On the other hand, and beside the fact that the cost of the proprietary hardware is quite high, the ergonomics of the retinal scan devices make this technology a bad fit for most situations. It is usually difficult to use and users are not comfortable enough with eye-related technology.

Retina scanning has "limited uses normally deployed in high security, low volume physical access situations in which inconveniencing users is an acceptable cost of heighted security".

References:

CBC News http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/airportsecurity/biometrics.html

SANS www.sans.org

http://www.cse.msu.edu

Pros of Retinal Scanning

Retinal scan devices are probably the most accurate biometric available today. The uniqueness of the retinal pattern and the difficulty in counterfeiting such a device also make it a great long-term, high-security option.

Among its advantages are its low occurrence to false positives or negative rates. It is also highly reliable since no two people have identical retinal patterns. Also, the pupil, like the fingerprint remains a stable physiological trait throughout ones life. The retina is located deep within one's eyes and is highly unlikely to be modified. Its resistance to false matching is due to the fact that retinal scans produce patterns that have highly distinctive characteristics, sufficient to enable identification.

Besides, one of its major advantages is the fact that retinal scans provide speedy results, since the identity of the user is verified very quickly.

However, as history and science have both proven, no technology is infallible.

References:

http://www.cse.msu.edu/

http://www.sans.org/

http://www.physorg.com/

Retinal Vs Fingerprints and Iris Recognition

Retinal scanning is part of biometrics, the science that automatically identify people through bodily characteristics, such as fingerprints, eye retinas and voice patterns. The most popular form of biometrics employed today is of course the fingerprint. However, the error rate for fingerprint identification is quite high. A retinal scan, on the other hand, is more accurate and has an infinitesimal rate of error, thing that make it better than its close cousin, the iris scan, which is slightly less precise.
A retinal scan can produce almost the same volume of data as a fingerprint image analysis. However, it is probably the most accurate biometric available, far surpassing the fingerprint in both reliability and accuracy.
Some biometric identifiers, like fingerprints, can be fooled. This is not the case with a retinal scan. A deceased person's retina deteriorate too fast that it can not be used . It is for this reason that retina scan technology is used for high end access control security applications.

A strong competition to the retinal scans was launched by iris scanning technology as well. The number of companies offering iris scanning are increasing. The main reason is the fact that the iris is also unique and offers high confidence in identification, and the main advantage of the iris scans is the ability to perform them from a distance of up to three feet and a short time of scans.

References:

Espionnage Info http://www.espionageinfo.com/Pr-Re/Retina-and-Iris-Scans.html

Nation Masters http://www.nationmaster.com

http://www.cse.msu.edu

Retinal Scanning: How this revolutioning technology works

Along the human being history, identity fraud and security counterfeiting have been a major concern and a challenging area for high security environments across the world. Thus, to revolutionize this universe of security and identification which has been highly defied, Retinal Identification came into the world as an automatic method that provides true identification of the person by acquiring an internal body image, the retina of a willing person who must cooperate “in a way that would be difficult to counterfeit”. The human retina is stable from birth to death, making it the most accurate biometric to measure. The retina scan technology is not to be confused with the other ocular-based technology: the iris recognition

The retina is a very thin tissue composed of neutral cells that is located at the back of the eye. Because of the complexity of the capillaries' structure that supply the retina with blood, each person's retina is unique. The blood vessels in the retina form such a complex netwok that identical or Siamese twins do not even share a similar pattern. The replication of a retina has been an impossible operation up until now, and a dead person's retina would deteriorate so fast that it can not be used for identity counterfeiting.

A retinal scan is the biometric identifier used to map the unique patterns of a person's retina. The user looks through a small opening in the device at a small green light. The user must keep his head still and eye focused on the light for several seconds during which time the device will verify his identity. This process takes about 10 to 15 seconds total.

The retinal scan examines the blood vessel patterns of the retina, the nerve tissue lining the inside of the eye that is sensitive to light.
An infrared light source is used to illuminate the retina of the eye. The image of the enhanced blood vessel pattern of the retina is analyzed for characteristic points.

The uniqueness of the human retina and the impossibility of its replication made the retina scanning the most commmon technology relied on for high end access control security applications. The wide use of this technology in very high security environments such as nuclear research and weapons sites and communications control facilities is an incontrovertible evidence of its accuracy and invulnerability.

References:

http://www.time.com/

http://www.cse.msu.edu/

SANS.org http://www.sans.org/reading_room/whitepapers/authentication/1177.php