The gateway to your soul – now accessible from 40 feet away. With the help of high-resolution cameras and the light from near-infrared wavelength band, the iris scanner from Carnegie Mellon University’s Biometrics Center is able to scan and register an individual’s iris from a distance of 40 feet.

If you’re wondering why iris scanning and not something along the lines of facial recognition, the answer is simply because every person’s iris is unique, much like fingerprints.

Furthermore, the features and characteristics of a person’s iris doesn’t change with age, like how facial features tend to.

The Biometrics Center’s pet project relies on mathematical pattern-recognition techniques to gather information, similar to the biometric technologies found in fingerprint or facial recognition systems. The technology works by capturing images from a live photographic or video feed, and running them through a database to find a potential match – pretty similar to what you’ll find in a Mission Impossible movie.

As you would have guessed by now, this new-found technology would fit in perfectly in the law enforcement department, since it’s always safer to identify cranky, armed and dangerous individuals from a distance.

The system is capable of working under various lighting conditions, and is even able to capture images through reflections in a mirror. Put into practice, this would allow a police officer to pull up in front of a suspect’s car and identify him simply by looking into the car’s rear-view mirror.