Iris Recognition: NIST Computer Scientist Patrick Grother

After fingerprints, iris recognition is the second most supported biometric characteristic, and its popularity as a means of authentication is growing. Patrick Grother is among the computer scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology's Information Technology Laboratory who are collaborating with their international colleagues to revise iris recognition standards and to advance iris images as the global interchange medium. In an interview, Grother discusses: Advances in iris recognition technology; When one biometric is better than another as a means of identification and authentication; and The IREX Exchange, or IREX, a program NIST founded to encourage collaboration in development of iris recognition algorithms operating on images conforming to the new ISO-IEC 19794-6 standard. Grother was interviewed by Eric Chabrow, GovInfoSecurity.com managing editor.