The folks at EyeLock want to improve password security by removing the need for passwords entirely with Myris. Instead, we'll use our eyeballs to keep our accounts and devices secure.
The Myris looks like a small mouse that connects to your computer via USB. When you flip it to the camera side, you'll see a white glowing ring that turns blue when it recognizes your eyes, and green to let you know you've successfully been authenticated.
It works because, like fingerprints, every human iris is unique. The Myris from EyeLock recognizes 240 unique characteristics or points in your irises, and it creates a template that is then converted into more data and encrypted.
If you're concerned about your iris information being stored, you shouldn't worry. The Myris isn't really storing anything but that template and some data, which is useless to anyone who gets a hold of the device if you were to lose it.
EyeLock tells us, "If anyone were to get their hands on this thing, it would just be a really pretty paperweight for them."
We were concerned that a high-resolution image of our eyes, or HD video, would fool the EyeLock. But we were assured that the device doesn't just capture video of our irises at 20FPS, it also checks to see if we're alive.
It's a little creepy, but apparently our pupils dilate and the appearance of our iris changed by this, so the EyeLock needs your living eyeballs in order to log into your computer, bank accounts or social networking accounts like Facebook.
Look into my eyes
The way it works with your social networks, banking websites and other secure sites is via a plugin that works with your browsers in Mac OSX, Windows 7 or W8 and Chrome. No more passwords, just eyeballs.
Chances of getting a false accept are very low - one in two trillion, in fact - so you'll never have to worry about compromising security here.
If you want one, you can get on the wait list, but we're told that it will be available some time during first half of 2014 for under $300.
