At first glance, this new technology might sound like something out of a science fiction movie. However, Mark Clifton, the vice president of products and services at the Sarnoff Corporation, says the development of the GAM-Cam will revolutionize animal identification within the equine industry. The GAM-Cam will be part of the animal identification solution, Eye-D™. “Animal identification is not nearly as efficient or as simple as it needs to be,” Clifton says. “We are pleased to join forces with Global Animal Management and apply our many decades of research and expertise in iris recognition technology to develop the GAM-Cam for the equine industry.”
Global Animal Management, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Intervet/Schering-Plough Animal Health, has acquired exclusive worldwide rights to develop, manufacture and market a non-invasive biometric iris animal identification system. They will be working in conjunction with Iristrac, LLC, a Kentucky-based animal identification company.
“We are delighted to provide this technology to GAM,” says Daniel E. Stewart, chairman and co-founder of Iristrac. “We have spent the last ten years researching and developing this technology. GAM has built the highway that this product needs to run on, and we look forward to working with them to bring iris identification to the equine industry.”
The GAM-Cam, is a portable device that will capture the image of a horse’s iris with a low visibility infrared light source. The non-invasive device will help reduce the amount of stress on horses that can be brought on by present methods of identification, like tattooing and microchipping.
“The GAM-Cam will allow users to quickly and accurately identify horses without undue stress on the animal,” says Jim Heinle, president of Global Animal Managment. “The non-invasiveness of this device will present a friendlier method of animal identification compared to more invasive methods, and in turn, will help protect the health and well-being of the horse.”
The GAM-Cam uses the unique features of an animal iris to establish an identification code in much the same way that iris identification has been perfected for humans. The technology has been of recent worldwide interest by helping to develop a non-invasive, accurate, low cost alternative to microchips, tattoos and phenotypic markings currently used by animal owners.
“Accessible and fraud resistant methods of identifying horses will facilitate a more uniform standard upon which the equine industry can build data and valuable information services,” Heinle says. “The Eye-D solution will enable transactions, registrations, health management and related industry management practices.”
The Eye-D solution incorporating the GAM-Cam will be on the market in late 2010.
