Security Sales & Integration September 2021 - 69

enrolled templates ensuring only paying members
to gain access.
It's expensive to keep employees on duty to
open bays for after-hours deliveries. End users
can save money and increase convenience
by enrolling authorized delivery drivers into a
biometric identity system enabling unattended
deliveries.
Traditional access control systems have a routinely
need to add, replace and delete cards, creating
a source of recurring revenue. Biometric
management, including employee enrollment
and deletion, also creates RMR opportunities.
Save customers regulatory fines and possible
injury claims by installing a biometric reader
at dangerous equipment to ensure only trained
personnel has access to operate it.
Biometric systems are also well suited for
hourly employees' time and attendance needs.
Organizations using timecards or plastic credentials
are open to " buddy punching, " a practice
in which one employee clocks in or out for
an absent friend. This process costs businesses
millions of dollars annually. Eliminate this
fraud with biometric systems, many of which
have already installed payroll software.
Markets significantly increasing their use of
biometrics include healthcare, law enforcement,
transportation and property management.
Biometric Varieties
Like the overall security industry, biometric
providers were significantly impacted by the
COVID-19 pandemic. One leading choice for
identity authentication - fingerprint technology
- saw sales fall as employers sought
touchless solutions. The same was true for hand
geometry readers. Also, neither technology
worked where employees routinely wore gloves
as part of their jobs.
The move away from contact-based devices
opened opportunities for integrators to sell replacement
systems. New touchless fingerprint
readers work by illuminating the surface of the
finger to create a 3D model of a finger's shadows
and ridges. However, a 2020 study by the
federal National Institute of Standards and
Technology (NIST) looked at six commercially
available touchless platforms (two standalone
devices and four smartphone apps) and found
they lacked the accuracy of contact-based devices.
Scanning any single finger returned accuracy
rates of 60% to 70%. But the scanning of
multiple fingers significantly improved accurasecuritysales.com
cy,
with one touchless device coming very close
to the 99.5% accuracy rate of contact devices.
Earlier NIST studies showed some facial recognition
systems reached an accuracy rate of
99.97%, matching iris-based platforms. However,
personal protective equipment (PPE), such
as masks and goggles, often interfere with accurate
ID authentication. A 2020 NIST survey
found masks covering nearly three-fourths of a
person's face resulted in authentication errors
ranging up to 50%. A follow-up study released
this year showed significant improvements in
some algorithms, with the error rate dropping
to 3% with the best performing platforms.
Another NIST study from late 2019 found
facial recognition's accuracy often depends on
the demographics of people being scanned.
Using more than 18 million images of people
pulled from FBI, Department of Homeland
Security and State Department databases, the
survey found females, people of color and persons
between the ages of 18-30 were less likely
to be accurately recognized.
Iris recognition systems are touchless and unaffected
by PPE, including goggles, glasses and
contact lenses. Greasy, dirty or scarred fingers
play no role in iris-based systems, nor do skin
color, tattoos, facial hair or makeup. However,
one academic study found that certain ocular
diseases, including those related to Type II diabetes,
may affect accuracy.
Looking Into Iris
Iris-based biometric systems are probably the
least familiar of the three major technologies
among integrators and end users, so here's a
quick look at how the technology works.
The iris offers more markers than most other
biometrics, with 240 captured at enrollment.
What amounts to an infrared photo taken during
the enrollment process creates a small 512-byte
template of each iris which can't be reversed or
reconstituted to create a workable image. Iris
patterns, found in the colored ring around the
eye's pupil, are like a snowflake - no two are alike.
Even genetic twins have different patterns.
The iris is fully formed at birth and remains
stable throughout a person's life, eliminating
the need for re-enrollment. The technology also
authenticates children's identities. And while
media reports often describe iris recognition
as retinal scans, the two technologies are not
the same. Iris-based technology doesn't require
shining bright lights into a person's eyes.
It's no longer
the 1990s and
cost-effective
biometric
technology is
used now in
everything
from enterprise
organizations
to small
businesses.
Like the overall security
industry, biometric providers
were significantly impacted
by the COVID-19 pandemic.
One leading choice for identity
authentication - fingerprint
technology - saw sales fall as
employers sought touchless
solutions.
SEPTEMBER 2021 Security Sales & Integration 69
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Security Sales & Integration September 2021

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