PITTSBURGH -- Carnegie Mellon University researchers are developing facial recognition technology that may soon help protect American soldiers.

Iris-scanning technology is already being used in Iraq, but it has drawbacks.

To work effectively, a target has to be stationary and close, but if an enemy gets to close to a military base it could have disastrous consequences.

CMU professor Marios Savvides is developing new technology at CMU’s CyLab that will be able to distinguish the good guys from the bad guys at a distance.

The facial recognition scan will also be able to identify a face at any angle.

Savvides and his graduate students are also working on technology to identify moving targets.

Using facial tracking software Savvides has developed, an ordinary security camera is able to lock on a person’s face from 30 yards away and follow that person as he moves around.

His team is also developing software that works with a video camera and can scan a person's iris from a distance and identify him or her.

The ultimate goal is to combine all tof his software together into one device that scans the iris, recognizes any facial angle and does it all from a distance.