Project Summary 

• Design and conduct groundbreaking evaluation of iris recognition system accuracy, interoperability, and usability for Department of Homeland Security: Independent Testing of Iris Recognition Technology (ITIRT)

IBG Responsibilities  

• Develop ITIRT Test Plan

• Install test equipment, including biometric and non-biometric components
• Integrate iris recognition hardware and software into an ITIRT test platform using vendor software development kits (SDKs) and application programming interfaces (APIs)
• Train test subjects and conduct real-time enrollment and recognition transactions
• Implement a matching environment to execute 2 billion 1:1 cross-comparisons

Iris recognition has become an increasingly viable solution for border control, immigration, registered traveler, access control, and national ID initiatives.

In 2004, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security sole-sourced IBG to conduct Independent Testing of Iris Recognition Technology, a groundbreaking test of commercial iris recognition systems.

ITIRT was the first large-scale, independent iris recognition evaluation. IBG collected over 100,000 samples and conducted over 2 billion comparisons.

Test results dramatically expanded the body of knowledge on iris recognition, driving DHS decisions of the use of iris recognition in Federal applications.    

ITIRT evaluated performance of the following state-of-the-art iris recognition hardware and software:

• Iridian KnoWho OEM SDK
• LG IrisAccess 3000
• Oki IRISPASS-WG
• Panasonic BM-ET300

ITIRT presents results essential to a full understanding of system performance:

• False accept and false reject rates
• Failure to enroll and failure to acquire rates 
• Transaction duration and level of effort
• Performance over time

IBG examined interoperability across iris recognition devices, a critical consideration for many deployers. Images from each iris recognition device were cross-compared to determine whether images captured through a given device could be matched against those captured through a different device.