Popular Science Declares MORIS One of the Best Innovations of 2010
Popular Science magazine comes out every year with a list of the best innovations of the year. It is considered a great scientific achievement to be included on this exclusive list. One of 2010’s ‘Best Innovations of the Year’, proclaimed by Popular Science is known simply as MORIS.
MORIS - Mobile Offender Recognition and Identification System
MORIS stands for the Mobile Offender Recognition and Identification System. It is a 2.5 ounce hardware attachment and software application that can turn an iPhone into a powerful handheld crime fighting device. This program combines iris recognition, fingerprint scanning and facial recognition forming a powerful real-time identification device. Instead of driving to his station and logging into a database, a police officer can simply snap a photo of a suspect’s face, scan his iris, or take his fingerprints with the built-in fingerprint scanner. The application allows police officers to wirelessly (and securely) comb through databases of existing criminal-justice records for any possible matches. The push of one button, generates information that in the past would have taken a considerable amount of time to collate.
To employ the iris recognition, suspects would look through a binocular-like device which details the unique areas of the iris. That information is then compared to others in a database, similar to the facial recognition and fingerprint databases.
The developer of MORIS is Biometric Intelligence & Identification Technologies of Plymouth, Massachusetts. The president and CEO of this company, Sean G. Mullin, said “We are honored that Popular Science recognized MORIS™ as one of the top 100 innovations of 2010”. Mullin’s company is working together with technology developed by Animetrics Inc. of Conway, N.H.
MORIS in Action
In Brockton, Mass., this new technology has been used since June to make fighting crime an easier feat. It only takes officers seconds to pull up a person’s identity on their iPhone. Brockton’s gang unit is the first unit to take advantage of this system, but eventually it will be deployed throughout Massachusetts. The iPhone device the Brockton Police are using is equipped with the facial recognition application, whereas the iris identification and fingerprint identification applications are expected to be added in the near future. Brockton Police also started using the devices at their booking desks where the prisoners get processed, but hope to utilize it in the field in the near future.
Possible Ethical Issues regarding MORIS?
Privacy issues are one thing that many will look at in the future in regards to this system, but Brockton Police claim they only use the system when the police are actively searching for a suspect or when someone has committed an offense, and not as a routine tool for identifying citizens on the street. Whether this will be followed in practice remains to be seen.
Steps Being Taken to Make MORIS More Widely Used
The databases used in conjunction with MORIS are currently being developed throughout the country in anticipation of the device becoming more widely used. These databases are currently fairly small, because the program has just started, but will grow in the upcoming weeks and months, according to a Plymouth County Sheriff, Joseph D. McDonald Jr.
Biometric Intelligence & Identification Technologies was awarded a contract earlier this year to provide the new system for 14 sheriff’s departments and up to 28 police departments throughout Massachusetts. Brockton was chosen to start using the system since it is the largest city in its county.
These augmented iPhones loaded with MORIS cost around $3,000 each. The devices in Brockton were made available thanks in part to a $200,000 federal grant that came through the Massachusetts Sheriff’s Association. For this system to be used on a widespread basis, police departments will need to find the funding necessary.
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