The exact details are pretty slim at this point, but if this solution does come to pass, you will have a little more assurance that your stolen phone isn’t being used for illicit purposes nor is it racking up some nasty long distance and 900-number charges. Oki Electric has working on some iris recognition technology for cell phones that operates using the pre-existing camera on most mobiles.

To be compatible with Symbian and Windows Mobile-based handsets, the unnamed technology does not require any additional hardware whatsoever. Everything that it needs is already there in your smartphone. The iris recognition is purely software-based and seems to work best with 3G phones that have front-mounted cameras. Just stare into that lens to unlock your phone!

Seems like such a simple yet remarkably useful idea! In the future, they may work on versions of the iris recognition technology for other platforms, but for the time being, Oki’s only got love for Symbian and WinMo.