Biometrics are the rage today. You can use your fingerprints to secure your data, to enter your home and, of course, to access your computer. There are fingerprint readers on mice, keyboards and you can buy them as stand-alone devices too.

But fingerprint scanners are just not ‘in’ anymore. The trend is pointing towards iris or retinal scanners. A Korean company called Qritek have created an affordable iris scanner, and have decided to stuff it in a mouse.

The IRIBIO as a mouse has some quite outdated, yet fit for the office specifications: it’s an optical 600 dpi 3-button mouse, with a scroll wheel of course.

As for its insides… well I think this thing breaks the world record for ‘Fastest processor stuffed inside a mouse’. The scanner runs on a 500 MHz processor with 16 MB of RAM and one meg of flash memory. This way, all of the data storage and processing takes place in the mouse itself.

It’s connected to the computer through an encrypted USB link.

The iris camera will have to be held at 3-5 cm from the eye, and I’m sure one would look funny as hell staring into a mouse at work.

Interested security freak aware people can find more info on the product page(korean) or at akihabara. Thanks Daimaou!