Will the Eyes Have It? Iris Scanning Takes a Step Forward With Fujitsu Phones

In the struggle to produce commercially viable alternatives to the password for user authentication, most industry attention lately has focused on fingerprint recognition. But on Monday another promising alternative took a step forward with an announcement from Delta ID Inc., a 5-year-old Newark, Calif.-based company, that its ActiveIRIS technology is behind an iris scanner built into the latest smart phone from Fujitsu.

The phone, the arrows NX F-01J, has been introduced in Japan by telecommunications giant NTT Docomo Inc. and is the third Fujitsu device to incorporate iris scanning, following Fujitsu’s arrows NX F-04G and F-02H, which appeared last year.

“Iris scanners are an extremely popular feature in Fujitsu-manufactured smart phones,” said Katsumi Takada, president, Fujitsu Connected Technologies Limited, in a statement. “We are impressed by the significant enhancements in usability and reliability in the latest version of Delta ID’s ActiveIRIS technology, which offers users exceptional performance in the arrows F-01J.”

The technology allows users to unlock their phones, make a payment, or log into an app by looking into the scanner, which reads unique features of the eye, according to Delta ID. The company adds tests found the latest scanner version in the arrows NX F-01J is nearly two times faster than the one installed in the F-02H. The latest version’s success rate indoors was found to be 99.7%, while the rate outdoors was above 90% outdoors in bright sunlight.

“We are very happy with the performance test results of the arrows NX F-01J smart phone,” said  Salil Prabhakar, president and chief executive of Delta ID, in a statement. “We are sure the users will love the ease of using their iris to authenticate themselves.”