We have found three new technologies that take biometrics in new directions -- and in one case, into computers.

1. Catching your eye

Until now, iris-recognition devices have required subjects to stop and face a reader that scans their eyes from a short distance.

Last month, Sarnoff unveiled a prototype system called Iris on the Move, which allows as many as 20 people a minute to walk through a portal at a normal pace without stopping, said James Matey, a senior member of Sarnoff's technical staff.

Subjects must open their eyes and look at their reflection 10 feet away in a mirror-like piece of black plastic "that looks like the monolith in [the film] '2010,'" Matey said.

As subjects walk through the portal, a strobed infrared light, invisible to the human eye, illuminates their eyes like a camera flash would. Four high-resolution cameras capture the image from as much as 10 feet away.

The scanner can read subjects' irises through most eyeglasses, sunglasses and contact lenses, he said. However, mirrored sunglasses and glasses with certain kinds of frames reflect the strobe light, so subjects must remove them, he said.

Iris on the Move overcomes three shortcomings of other iris-recognition technologies, Matey said. First, the light and cameras enlarge the area in which subjects can position their heads for the scanner to recognize their iris patterns. Second, it reduces the amount of time a subject must spend in that space, he said. And lastly, the system can also capture moving images.

Sarnoff officials said the company hopes to establish a commercial partnership in the next six to 12 months to distribute the technology.