Biometrics in Access Control
In very high security applications, normal access devices such as swipe cards, PIN numbers or proximity tokens may not offer sufficient control of access. Such devices can be lost, stolen or lent to friends. Very high risk facilities such as military installations and cash handling centres need to rely on a system which can offer a greater degree of protection from deception, as do time and attendance systems.
Increasingly this is also true of facilities which present a lower security risk, but where it is important to ensure that people who enter the premises are who they say they are. One example would be a plant employing temporary or agency staff where the employer needs to comply with legislation regarding residency and employment eligibility. Another might be at construction site where the main contractor needs to be sure that sub-contract workers are technically competent and have been through the site induction and health and safety training.
The use of biometrics, basing identity of an individual on unique physical characteristics, is a potential answer to these concerns, and facial recognition, retina scanning and finger print recognition have all been developed as candidates. Unfortunately, until recently, all these methods have suffered from being relatively slow to process individuals reliably, particularly in high volume applications or where access tends to be concentrated in particular times of the day.
We have been very impressed by how the latest finger print readers from iEVO do seem to be very fast and reliable in use. They seem to have got round the traditional problems associated with finger print reading, namely dust, dirt, moisture and extremes of temperature, all of which can fox traditional finger print scanners. Apparently, they use “multi spectral imaging technology” or, in plain English, their scanners read the pattern of a finger print below the immediate surface of the skin, so they are not confused by moisture, dirt, grease, cosmetics or changes brought about by extremes of temperature. They will even work under water and through some latex gloves.
KSS can advise on how iEVO readers can be integrated into access control systems, especially Paxton Net2, and can arrange demonstration sessions to prove how biometrics are now a practical option for access control and at a price which makes practical sense.
