Interview with Dae-hoon Kim, Ph.D., CEO/President, IriTech Inc.

FB
The National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST) IREX 2008 tests show IriTech performing very well. Can you please tell us about these results?

IriTech
The NIST IREX 2008 test represents the most detailed and exhaustive test performed to date on iris recognition technologies. We embraced the opportunity to participate in this landmark test and very pleased with the results our technology achieved. The test addressed several factors of iris recognition that are critical to any successful operations, including: Failure to Enroll, Accuracy, and Speed of Processing. These key factors deserve special attention.

Failure to Enroll (FTE) is the metric that measures how well a technology handles source imagery, especially challenging images that have significant occlusion or less than perfect focus. IriTech is the only technology provider that achieved essentially zero failures to enroll. The term essentially was specifically used as some images had no visible eye. This part of the NIST test showed IriTech iris technology can handle any kind of image—good or bad—without fail, making it the most versatile and reliable of all iris recognition providers.

Accuracy is where IriTech excels the most and outperforms other technology providers by a wide margin. On real-world operational data the error rate (Generalized False Reject Rate) of the next closest provider is more than two and half times larger than that of IriTech. What is more remarkable is that IriTech’s ROC curves (DET characteristics) are basically horizontal, which is the sign of extreme stability and applicability to very large datasets.

Test result demonstrate the robustness and versatility of IriTech’s SDKs in handling all three different record types (K3, K7 and K16), and they confirm the world-best performance of IriTech’s SDKs. That is the reason why the Iritech SDK was adopted as a reference generator in some IREX test scenarios. The IREX report addressed the matching performance of the interoperability test quite succinctly, stating “IriTech SDK matchers are the most capable of matching IREX records regardless of their source. The false non-match rates are less than half of other matchers.”

IriTech’s speed of processing was shown in the NIST report to be slower than other providers. This was not a surprise to us. Due to the blind nature of the IREX test, some extra precautions – unnecessary under normal circumstances – were included in the versions of IriTech’s SDKs submitted to NIST. We knew these precautions would adversely affect the execution speed. Through removal of the normally unnecessary steps, and through continued development and optimization, the speed of IriTech’s SDKs has already been greatly improved. The template generation speed and the matching speed are both expected to improve by up to 2 orders of magnitude over the versions supplied to NIST.

 
FB
You also recently announced the release of a new USB plug & play iris camera, targeting low cost applications. How is this being received?

IriTech
IriTech has made great advancements in high-performance low-cost iris acquisition cameras. The iris acquisition camera is a key component of any solution, and can often be a determining factor in overall affordability. Built on the success of our previous USB iris cameras, the newest models continue our tradition of automated quality-based image acquisition, delivering fast capture and standards-compliant images, now in monocular and binocular configurations.

A new key feature in these cameras is an embedded CPU that performs both image capture computation and matching, greatly reducing the processing load of the host system. Customer response to these new cameras has been overwhelmingly positive. We are excited about the improvement these cameras will bring to many existing applications, the new applications that these cameras make possible, and the associated business growth for IriTech.                                                                                                                                                                                                      
FB
Which of the vertical market segments that you focus on, are seeing the greatest growth?

IriTech
IriTech has established business in several market segments and is experiencing growth across them all. One area that shows special promise is iris identification in national identification programs. These programs, very large business prospects in themselves, have the potential to deliver an identification baseline that can also be used for many other applications ranging from voting to border control. Due to this amplification through related services, the total business value associated with a national ID program is extremely large. It is exciting to see the increasing level of interest and activity in this area.

Another area to watch is mobile identification. We see continued growth in handheld devices enabled with iris identification technology. Our new camera technology will greatly improve the ability of these devices to rapidly acquire and process iris images for identification or verification, expanding their usage and improving acceptance by users. While this type of handheld has been first adopted by DoD, DHS and other government organizations, future use in the commercial sector may become the larger market.

FB
Has this been a good year for the company and can you please highlight some of the milestones?

IriTech
IriTech’s industry-leading national test performance with NIST is indicative of our year overall. 2009 has been a year of many new customers, deliveries against a growing number of contracts, and a broadening of avenues through which we can deliver value and grow business. It has also been a year of important new product releases, software and hardware. Our new IriMaster™ software suite contains the best performing algorithms available today in an easy-to-use package to support large-scale iris identification solutions. With IriMaster™, solution providers can rapidly respond and meet the needs of the most demanding iris identification applications. The new IriCAMM line of cameras set a new standard in price/performance and ease of use, again enabling solution providers maximum flexibility and a discriminator in delivering widely distributed iris acquisition solutions.

We have multi-tiered strategy for partners and customers and have experienced growth in each tier. We are very pleased by the growing number of customers that seek out IriTech for iris technology. We are dedicated to continue to deliver the best performing iris recognition technology and products to our customers, ensuring their success.

FB
Where do you see the Iris market in 5 years and what will the technology be capable of then?

IriTech
The market will continue to adopt iris identification as the preferred biometric for identification due to several factors that include: ease-of-use, better hygiene through non-contact, high accuracy, low FTE, and stability over time. This adoption will be accelerated by the increasing availability of high performing low-cost cameras such as our IriCAMM, which will allow ubiquitous deployment of iris acquisition capability. We see iris acquisition in the future being at or below the price for fingerprint acquisition and operating much faster than fingerprint. As camera technologies advance we believe combined iris and face acquisition will become a standard capability, allowing both to be used, and potentially fused, in many applications, including stand-off and on the move. These advancements will pave the way for iris to become an integral part of many transactions we commonly do today, including credit card payments, online financial transactions, and mobile commerce.

FB
What can we expect to see from IriTech in the coming year?

IriTech's IriTerminal MD-300