In times of disaster, the federal government and relief agencies distribute money to victims to help them pay for food, shelter, and relocation. Some victims find ways to game the system, including applying for aid under a variety of names and social security numbers.

Members of Purdue’s Biometrics Standards, Performance, and Assurance Laboratory, including CERIAS faculty member Stephen Elliott and researchers Mamadou Niang, Eric Kukula, and Matthew Young, have integrated existing technology to propose a system that will eliminate such fraud.

Using an iris scanner attached to a PDA, their system captures an image of the user’s iris and submits it wirelessly to a central repository that hosts a database of users who have previously been issued money. Applicants are then checked against the database to ensure that they have not already received aid.

Researcher Matthew Young said that the system is “portable, quick, accurate and self-sustaining - all key factors in a time of chaos and destruction."

http://news.uns.purdue.edu/html3month/2006/060619.T.Niang.iris.html

http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/index.php?id=1344