What are the advantages of this technology?

Retinal scanning is an advantageous biometric technique because of many reasons and has been used in various industries. Initially, it was mainly used for the purpose of identification by organizations such as the CIA, FBI, NASA and government agencies in order to protect confidential information but in recent times the technology has gained commercial acceptance. It can now be seen used in ATM identity verification, security check for employees, prisoner identification in prisons and also to reduce welfare fraud. It also has medical advantages since the signs of many diseases first show up in the eyes and retinal scans provide medical science with another method to detect sicknesses. The advantages of the techonolgy include:

1. The retina/iris is universal and unique, meaning that all individuals possess one and it is distinctive to them. It is a permanent characteristic since the retina or iris pattern of a human stays constant over time.

2. The retina scanning machine accurately and easily collects the data which is to be collected and stores it.

3. The technology allows fast and speedy verification of the identity of an individual and therefore saves time.

4. It is hard to deceive this technology since it is impossible for an individual to somehow alter the image of their retina or iris to match someone else’s.

5. Retinal scanning is also a fairly acceptable method of collecting biometric information and is not considered to me a massive intrusion upon privacy for most individuals, although some consider it to be intrusive.

6. This method also has a very low false acceptance rate and false rejection rate, which implies that most of the time it is absolutely accurate and seldom makes errors.



References:
Individual Biometrics - Iris Scan
Biometrics Using Retinal Scan
Retina and Iris Identification