“We are delighted that The CHILD Project has selected Iridian’s market-leading iris recognition solution to be the enabler for this nationally-coordinated effort to positively identify missing persons, especially children and runaways,” said Frank Fitzsimmons, Chief Executive Officer of Iridian. “In particular, we are confident that our technology will be able to expedite the reunion of missing persons and their loved ones.”

The announcement was timed to today’s launch of the CHILD Project by Kenneth R. Ramsey, Sheriff of Kane County in suburban Chicago.

“Iris recognition has proven to be the most accurate and fastest biometric technology for identity management,” said Sean Mullin, President of the CHILD Project. “We are pleased to have selected Iridian, along with their camera partner Panasonic Security Systems, as our strategic partners to help reunite missing children with their families.”

The CHILD Project database is hosted by The Nation’s Missing Children Organization (NMCO) and National Center for Missing Adults, a nonprofit agency providing nationwide assistance to law enforcement and families of missing persons. The agency, headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, was founded in 1994 and provides a variety of services including advocacy, search assistance, national distribution of information related to missing persons and various programs addressing child safety.

Fitzsimmons noted that Iridian’s non-intrusive iris recognition technology has been successfully deployed by the United Nations Refugee Agency to identify more than one million returning Afghan refugees in the three-year-old Afghan repatriation program.

The CHILD Project relies on Panasonic Security Systems’ ProofPositive-certified BM-ET330 Iris Readers, which feature advanced user guidance technology along with the latest developments in iris recognition technology to deliver fast and accurate system enrollment and authentication.