Global vision drives iris-recognition technology

Eyes are the windows of the soul. They're also a record of a person's identity, and China is embracing biometric technology to take advantage of the unique properties of the iris.

Experts can map the iris - the colored ring between the black pupil and the white sclera - of a human eye. It is a unique individual feature that remains unchanged from age 1, said expert Tan Tieniu, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

"Compared with fingerprints and facial-recognition, iris-recognition is more reliable and stable. For example, fingerprints are prone to wear and facial recognition has difficulty distinguishing twins. The iris does not wear and is stable across a lifetime. Even twins have totally different iris details," Tan said.