Snappy retinal scanners have been in the works for some time, and now Panasonic is apparently hoping to hasten those annoying ID checks by enabling security personnel to confirm the true identity of a person walking through in just "two seconds." Additionally, this scanner does not require subjects to "focus on the equipment," packs "multiple two-megapixel cameras," and in case you couldn't guess, is being marketed towards airports and high-security office buildings. No word just yet on when these may be rolled out for public use, but anything (well, almost) that speeds up our traveling is smiled upon by us.

[Via TechDigest]

If a mouse with a built-in fingerprint reader isn't enough to calm your security concerns, you may want to give Qritek's latest peripheral some consideration, which ups the biometric game by packing its own iris scanner. Apparently, the company's IRIBIO mouse can not only be used to control acccess to a PC, but to specific files as well -- presumably, there's also some sort of software measures involved to prevent people from simply swapping out the mouse for less security-minded one. While it may have the biometric advantage over standard mice, it certainly doesn't stand out when it comes to other mouse features, boasting an unremarkable 600 dpi resolution along with the standard two buttons and a scroll wheel. Only the most cautious/paranoid need apply here through, as the cost for this particular extra piece of mind is a hefty ¥37,800, or $315.

[Via Plastic Bamboo]

Although the mere mention of "retinal scanner" may get the blood boiling in privacy advocates, the latest such device out of MIT sports a much more innocent soul. Researchers at the school have reportedly developed a method to "scan the retina at record speeds of up to 236,000 lines per second, or ten-times faster than current technology." This process will allow doctors to snap "high detailed 3D images of the eye," which can be used to non-invasively spot ocular diseases such as diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma, and age-related macular degeneration much earlier and more accurately. The process itself is dubbed optical coherence tomography (OCT), and while things seem to moving along as scheduled, it will still be "five years or more" before we see this thing commercialized.

[Via MedLaunches]

Okay, so it's more like the US government wanting to snag shots of your eyeballs sans your knowledge, but still, Sarnoff Corporation (yet another New Jersey firm interested in ocular studies) has recently filed a patent application that spells out a snazzy method of quickly photographing a helpless individual's facial region multiple times in order to (hopefully) capture one solid look at the iris. This newfangled manner of jacking biometrics from clueless pedestrians is actually being requested by the American government, as it apparently hopes to use it to run constant background checks with the information on file in order to peg a threat as they're strolling through. The device is slated to beam a "powerful, infrared strobe light" onto the subjects' faces, which syncs up with the camera exposures and creates a bank of hopeful photos for each individual, presumably chewing through terabytes of hard drive space in the process. Regardless, even this tactical approach probably won't be effective for long -- you know, considering every potential baddie now knows to rock the welder's glasses from here on out.

[Via ]

Looks like the Penobscot County Sheriff's Department in Maine is the latest to get in the biometrics game, investing in an iris scanner and setting out to scan and record the vitals of all the children in the area. The department's not just freelancing here though, with each kid's biometric information being contributed to the nationwide Children's Identification and Location Database (or CHILD) project, intended to aid in locating and identifying missing children. While it has already scanned some 500 kids' eyes, the Sheriff's Department is now looking to speed up the process by bringing the technology into schools to register 'em all in one fell swoop. Of course, similar programs haven't always been met well by privacy-conscious parents in the past, but the department looks to be trying to accommodate any concerns by first sending home a permission slip with the students that parents must sign off on. While this scan is strictly a one time deal, at the rate various biometric systems are moving into schools, we somehow suspect that it won't be the last encounter the students have with the technology in the course of their edification.