News
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16.06.2010
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Spy Camera For Scanning Eyeballs
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Researchers at Southern Methodist University in Dallas with funding from DARPA are developing a super high tech camera, which would even be able to scan eyeballs in a moving crowd.
The device, known as Panoptes, uses many low-resolution sensors to create a high-resolution image which is captured through light-weight and ultra-slim camera. The camera was primarily designed for military drone sensors and helmet-cams of combatants, as they need camera with lesser weight as compared to that of a traditional one and this is achieved by this camera as it does not rely on a large lens but uses array of miniature lenses.
Along with having a wide field-of-view, it also has the ability to locate a face in a crowd and finally finding and picturing the iris. Iris recognition is the most accurate biometric available and since Panoptes rely on this technology, it is able to take distinct high-resolution images of distinct irises because no two irises are alike.
It also is capable of scanning the iris in a moving crowd without bringing the people to a stop or making them to stare in camera.
However, the current technology would not be able to clearly picture the iris, if scanning is interfered by problems like dim-lighting, eyelashes, eyelids or glare.
Pointing on the effectiveness of Smart-Iris biometric enabled in Panoptes, project leader Prof. Marc Christensen who is an expert in computational imaging and optical interconnections is confident that it will complete work stealthily as well as accurately. And on being asked about its usefulness for defense and security purposes, he said that this technology will make border patrolling more effective and help in beefing up airport security.
It’s not just the eyeball scanning, that this technology has to offer. According to him, camera projection device could also be integrated into phones, to help consumers to photograph even the smaller things like lettering on a page.
