The eyes have it - CNN.com

July 25, 2007 -- Updated 1127 GMT (1927 HKT)

The eyes have it

By Michelle Jana Chan

LONDON, England (CNN) -- London Heathrow calls itself the world's busiest airport and anyone who's arrived at one of its four terminals is familiar with the tedium of security checks and immigration queues. But there's one smart short-cut: by registering your biometrics data ahead of arrival. That channels you into a separate queue, which is generally much shorter than the regular queue.

Shorter queues with IRIS technology.

That's because only 100,000 people have so far taken advantage of this biometrics scheme, which was launched in January 2006. But it's straightforward, open to anyone to apply - and free!

The U.K.'s Border and Immigration Agency use biometrics technology called IRIS, or the Iris Recognition Immigration System, which works by matching the pattern of a passenger's eye with their personal identiy information in the agency's securely-stored database. New members of the scheme must have a photograph taken of their eye's iris pattern, known to be one of the most distinct external physical characteristics. That pattern is then converted into a digital code.

The IRIS scheme was launched in January 2006 and is now in place at London's Heathrow and Gatwick airports, as well as at Manchester and Birmingham. Registered passengers entering the United Kingdom at these airports skip the regular line to see an immigration officer. They instead head towards the automated barrier, where they look into a special camera. It takes a few seconds for iris recognition, after which the barrier lifts and the passenger enters the UK. There's no human contact at all and a passenger doesn't need to show their passport.

Registering for the scheme takes just a few minutes. Passengers need to take their passport and boarding card to one immigration staff in the departures area of participating airports.

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The eyes have it - CNN.com