With the development of society, security of military barracks is facing many new problems, the traditional means for identity authentication has security hidden danger. Biometric technology provides technical support for solving the camp security problems, and iris recognition technology has the highest security, fulfil the army needs for safety. The basic principle of iris and iris recognition system is analysed, the current development of iris recognition technology is also summarized, pointing out the technical difficulties in the field of iris recognition and it's future developing direction, finally the application scheme of an iris recognition system in the army barracks are given.