1. R ETINAL S CANNING by the Man, the Myth, the Legend Justin Thompson

2. O VERVIEW What is retinal scanning? How does it work? Uses Advantages Disadvantages Overview Commentary

3. R ETINAL S CANNING Original idea in 1935 from Dr. Carleton Simon and Dr. Isodore Goldstein Patterns of blood vessels in the back of the eye were individual to each human, even twins Not only unique to each individual, but also unique to each eye Eyedentify, founded in 1976, made the first commercial retinal scanner for commercial use in 1984

4. H OW IT W ORKS Low intensity infrared light is projected to the back of the eye onto the retina Infrared is used because the blood vessels absorb it more readily than the other tissues in the eye The infrared light is reflected back to the camera The retina is transparent to infrared, so some scanners also use visible light to make the retina show up The user has to keep still fairly close to the scanner for up to 15 seconds without blinking

5. H OW IT W ORKS C ONT ’ D Enrollment can take as many as 5 scans of an eye As many as 400 data points are collected for a template 3 methods of recognition Database searching Declaration/match Submit/validate

6. D ATABASE S EARCHING The user is scanned and a template is created That template is compared to the database of enrolled individuals If there is a match, the user is informed of whom he/she is

7. D ECLARATION /M ATCH The user declares who they are before submitting to a scan The database only checks the scan to the template of the person the user declares to be Provides for quicker response times

8. S UBMIT /V ALIDATE The user’s retina is scanned, then is prompted with some other form of identification, such as a PIN or password In some systems a combination of these items is used to create the presentation template In others, it is used to ensure that the matched template is correct by comparing the entered PIN or password to the enrolled one matching the appropriate retina scan template

11. U SES High security access Military Financial institutions FBI CIA NASA

12. A DVANTAGES The retina is a permanent structure, staying the same from birth to death Can be considered impossible to alter Very hard to fake Decays quickly after death Really low false positive and false negative rates

13. D ISADVANTAGES Expensive Very intrusive Can’t move during scan The retina is susceptible to disease damage, such as cataracts, glaucoma, diabetes, and degenerative retina High amount of both user and operator skill required Not enough funding Has the stigma that people think it is harmful to the eye

15. C ONCLUSION Retina scanning is one of the most accurate biometrics with a very low error rate. Unfortunately, because it is invasive and expensive, it might not be very commonly used in the near future

16. Q UESTIONS ?