The Department of Homeland Security has begun testing eye-reading
machines at one border crossing. The machines, which scan people’s
irises, is being tested in a two- to eight-week trial in McAllen, Texas
as part of a Homeland Security assessment of the new technology. The
goal of the testing is to see how the scanners work in an actual
Customs and Border protection setting.
“This is a preliminary test of how the technology performs,” said Amy
Kudwa, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security. “We have
no specific plans for acquiring or deploying this type of technology at
this point.”
The U.S. Department of Defense currently uses similar scanners
at military locations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The newer versions of
these eye-reading devices, however, are able to identify multiple
people at one time from a distance of up to 30 feet.
