Biometric technology compan
y Iris ID has received a major contract to supply the voter authentication technology for a major African nation’s 2015 elections. While the country went unnamed in a press release, the company did reveal that it has a population of 3.5 million, with 1.2 million registered voters.
The nation’s election commission had apparently been considering a fingerprint-based system initially, but ultimately decided to go with Iris ID’s iris recognition system “due to its accuracy at detecting duplicate registration attempts and its speed of enrollment,” the company said in a statement. A 2014 trial run found that Iris ID’s system was able to quickly and accurately identity 457 duplicate registrants seeded into a sample of 1062. While accuracy is undoubtedly important, the speed of the system also went some way toward convincing the country’s election commission to select Iris ID’s system, since it could dramatically reduce labor costs, which account for over two-thirds of the commission’s budget for voter registration.
Iris ID has experience working with national governments. Its technology has been integrated with Electoral Services International for voter registration deployments; it has had its technology installed in Qatari immigration centers; and it has also seen its technology adopted into the Canada Border Services Agency’s NEXUS border control program. Given its experience and the plaudits it has received from the industry, Iris ID’s latest client is likely to benefit greatly from its technology as it proceeds with its national election.
—
May 29, 2015 – by Alex Perala
Follow Us