Boone County Sheriff’s Department is showing off the new iris scanners that are available to deputies and the Boone County Jail (ColumbiaTribune.com)
Iris biometrics are being rapidly adopted by jails.
To understand why, it is useful to have a working knowledge of the framework outlined in:
NATIONAL BIOMETRIC TEST CENTER COLLECTED WORKS 1997-2000 (1.8MB PDF), specifically Chapter 1, section II 'Classifying Applications' (page 13 in your PDF reader, page 3 according to the document's internal numbering).
The categories are:
Cooperative v. Non-cooperative
Overt v. Covert
Habituated v. Non-habituated
Attended v. Non-attended
Standard Environment
Public v. Private
Open v. Closed
Some of these distinctions refer to the individual to be identified while some refer to the technology.
Nowhere have I found a more understandable and concise elucidation of how to understand biometrics in particular and security in general.
