LG Electronics Eyes Iris Recognition Market

TOKYO (08/09/2000) - South Korea's LG Electronics Inc. (LGE) said Wednesday it plans to make an aggressive push into the global iris (eye) recognition systems market.

The announcement came a day after executives from the Seoul-based electronics giant signed a patent licensing deal with IriScan Inc. for key technologies used in such systems. Targeted for use in high-level security systems, the iris recognition system verifies a user's identity by matching key features of the iris of a person's eye -- a feature said to disinguish between individuals better than a fingerprint.

The deal signed by the two companies gives LGE exclusive rights to sell IriScan's Iris Access 2000 system in South Korea and Brazil, and nonexclusive rights to sell it in all other countries except Israel.

IriScan developed key patents related to iris recognition. It has licensed the technology to a large number of companies in several different countries, and first started working with the LG Group in 1997 when it formed a technology alliance with the LG Corporate Institute of Technology and agreed to jointly develop products together.

IriScan, in Malton, New Jersey, can be contacted at +1-856-797-6890 or found online at http://www.iriscan.com/. LG Electronics, in Seoul, can be contacted at +82 2 3777 3944, or found online at http://www.lge.co.kr/.