Eye-scanners used to track terrorists adapted to help search for missing children like Madeleine McCann

Eye-scanners used to track terrorists adapted to help search for missing children like Madeleine McCann

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3184725/Eye-scanners-used-track-terrorists-adapted-help-search-missing-children-like-Madeleine-McCann.html#ixzz3hrJwL3YX

• Devices will be used to scan a person's eye from up to 40 feet away
  
• They will check the 'fingerprint' of iris against database of missing people
  
• Similar technology already used by military to identify suspected terrorists 
  
• Could help find missing children whose appearances have altered
  

By Kate Pickles For Mailonline
Published: 09:32, 4 August 2015  | Updated: 14:19, 4 August 2015


Eye-scanners used to track terrorists are being adapted to help search for missing children.

Researchers at a Pittsburgh university have developed high-resolution cameras that can be placed at major checkpoints, such as airports and border crossings, to scan a person's iris from 40-feet away.

It means missing people could be identified through their eye's iris, even if their physical appearance has altered drastically.

'This is breakthrough technology for locating missing children, especially victims of human trafficking,' said Marios Savvides, director of the CyLab Biometrics Center at Carnegie Mellon University's College of Engineering.

'Right now law enforcement has only photos of missing children to work with, but appearance can change.'

'We're giving them a biometric that really cannot be altered,' he told Fox News.

The technology could help children like British girl Madeleine McCann who went missing from a holiday apartment in Portugal, eight years ago, just days before her fourth birthday.

Pictures circulated of the blonde youngster focused on a distinctive mark on her right eye that her family hope will still lead to her identification, years later.

But this technology would go beyond anything that could be seen by the naked eye, scientists say.




The technology could also be used by police to help catch criminals by allowing identification without having to come directly into contact with them.

The university lab was given a $1.5 million grant from the Department of Defense to develop the technology, which the U.S. military has used in Afghanistan and Iraq to help identify suspected terrorists.

It works in a similar fashion to fingerprints as a person's iris has a distinct pattern which doesn't change over time

Well that certainly wouldn't of helped Madeleine McCann.

Yes, the abductor probably did something to her eyes, but what the hell, it was a good marketing ploy.