Entry level

Believe it or not, companies have real choice when it comes to picking the front end access control they install at their premises today. In fact, keeping track of all the options available to you today may be something of a headache.

From the humble key to the most sophisticated biometric access system based on voice recognition, finger or palm prints, over even iris and face recognition, users can also choose between magstripe or Wiegand cards, proximity and infra-red tokens, digital entry keypads and keyboards, not to mention smart cards and photo ID cards.

And while some have predicted the death of the key, it is far from dead. The lock industry may be increasingly embracing electronics, with many new and patented systems, but the key remains a fundamental security tool — the original access control system.

But today’s security manager may choose a ‘pick and mix’ approach to access control, and may even decide to use keys alongside biometrics. Even though cost is still an important factor, there’s enough choice out there today to enable you to find a system that will address your long-term security needs, meaning the days of having to select a system to meet a short term security problem are over.

Up, up and away

Access control enjoyed a record growth in 1998 according to market specialists, MSI, and is still on an upward curve. In its report on the UK Electronic Security Systems market, MSI predicts the market for access control equipment will increase by 21% between 2000-2004 to reach a value of £242 million, up from £193 million in 1999.

By system type, it segments the market into audio/video entry systems (33% in 1999), stand-alone systems (25%) and on-line systems (42%).

While the market share of individual technologies has not been attempted due to the complexities of the market, MSI says it is on the agenda. For the moment however, it breaks down on-line systems by reader type, showing magnetic stripe technology dominant with 61%, proximity readers at 37% and biometrics accounting for just 2% of the total value.

But as technology develops, user demand will follow supply, says MSI: “Technological development will continue to influence demand for access control systems in the UK… and increase the range of products available to the end user.

Moreover an increased range of products will mean that selecting a system to suit the specific needs of the company will be much easier.”

In other words, demand for proximity cards and biometric readers will rise as more products are introduced, competition increases and prices fall.

Litmus test

While this is good news for the likes of PAC, Cotag and Northern Computers who manufacture proximity based systems, and Neurodynamics, TSSI and others which are developing biometric products, some manufacturers claim other technologies are in danger of being overshadowed.

Drawing a parallel with the music industry where technological advances have not entirely destroyed the market for vinyl, Ian Bend, technical director of BSB Electronics which manufactures the Progeny range of access control products, says the user will still demand choice.

“The three principles of access control are based on identifying a person through secret knowledge, carrying a token or through a unique biometric identity,” says Bend. “On their own, each have their limitations, but if you were to use two technologies that overlap, they cancel out each others disadvantages. If you were to use all three, it would be very secure, but the time factor involved in getting you through the door would be too long.”

Bend’s beef is that the benefits of Wiegand, which has been around for 20 years and can communicate with almost every on-line system on the market, are being forgotten in the helter-skelter dash for the future. Duplication or alteration of cards is virtually impossible, due to the complexity of manufacture, says Bend, and once installed, wear and tear is minimal and performance is enhanced due to its lack of moving parts, especially in harsh, dirty and wet environments.

But even in high-tech clean environments, Wiegand has its uses, he claims. It is currently used at Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted airports. “When you have up to 100,000 aircrew requiring access to meet the tight deadlines necessary to run a vast range of international flights, there is no room for failure,” says Bend.

The airports have a fully networked system with 130,000 authorised cardholders, some using their cards up to 500 times per day.

Buyer be king

Revolutions happen through user demand, and the voice of discontent has clearly been heard in access control. Proximity-based systems, for instance, grew out of the local authority market’s demands for vandal-resistant, robust ID devices. Cost is not a factor for this market so long as the product delivers.

Other markets also have their needs, so the need for feature-rich products which can encompass photo IDs, cashless vending, elevator control, time and attendance monitoring and time profiles for each user are also being incorporated into systems.

Newmark Technology recently replaced 3,000 cards and 140 readers at certain Shell locations using multi-functional proximity cards incorporating vending applications and a new visitor management system. They did it using less expensive magnetic stripe cards. And at the University of Nottingham, Bradley Lomas Electrolok has installed a system using smartcard technology, which can incorporate much more than just access and cash, at eight sites as well as the new £50 million Jubilee campus. Using Mondex technology, the smartcards can hold personal details of each student, allowing them to withdraw ‘electronic’ cash which can be pre-loaded onto the card to spend at the student union and campus shops, as well as photographic ID giving access to the halls of residence, central catering and departmental facilities such as computer rooms.

Philips Projects replaced an outdated paging and access control system with a PC based dual networked 150 pager and ID card-based proximity system giving access to 800 staff and vehicles at Ciba Speciality Chemicals and Hexcel Composites’ Duxford manufacturing site. Though dealing with two companies, the systems had to be separate but linked to allow security and emergency paging over the entire site. Based on the Granta system, both access and ID is managed on the same system and controllers are linked for site-wide operation.

Facing the future

But what of biometrics? While users bemoan costs and the negativity surrounding the use of fingerprints, which users complain puts them on a par with criminals, biometrics is still seen as the ultimate in access control.

Systems using retina, face and even body odour are in the making. According to Dr George Harpur, technical director at Cambridge Neurodynamics, facial recognition has now come of age with a system called NVisage which makes a three-dimensional model of the human face. The 3D model can be rotated to normalise any discrepancies and is more reliable than previous products using 2D imaging.

Neurodynamics is currently trialling NVisage and expects to have it on the market in six months. “Face recognition is the holy grail of biometrics,” says Harpur. “It’s highly acceptable to the public because everyone is recognised by their face, and it’s non-contact.”

In the medium-future biometrics will still be, to some extent, a specialist technology. Even the old-fashioned key will take a while to die, and carrying cards is easy and quite sufficient for most applications. But eventually even they will go the way of the dinosaur. “With biometrics, you don’t need to carry a card which means you can’t compromise security by giving it to someone else,” says Harpur. “Those benefits are significant.”

NVisage is currently being trialled purely for access control backed up by an existing (magstripe) card identifier which speeds up processing time. Smart cards could also be used and have the advantage of enabling the template to be embedded, getting round privacy issues and also the need to have a huge central database in which to store biometric imprints.

In fact, one company has introduced such a system. Using the ‘template on a card’ technique, Third Millennium Systems has launched a biometric fingerprint system which stores details on a magstripe card. Developed as a wall-mountable unit, it can be integrated with magstripe or prox card reader and checks the users finger against the image stored on the card.

Other Cambridge Neurodynamic trials involving giving access to small numbers of users are also being run. This, says Mike Dell, technology manager for the biometric division, is where biometrics is really useful since the database holds all the records so nothing can be stolen or forged. There is always the possibility of error, and the more people you compare the greater the possibility for error.

“Facial recognition is not the most accurate, but it is the least obtrusive,” he says. Such a system is also being trialled to recognise known trouble makers at football grounds to raise an alarm for authorities to police more accurately.

You might think biometric systems would cost an arm and a leg, yet the cost is not astronomical. You shouldn’t need lots of technology, says Dell: “There is no ‘Star Trek’ syndrome.”

Typically all it requires is a standard Windows NT desktop PC with a CCTV camera. The only specialised hardware is the infra-red projection unit. £1,500 - £2,000 per door is common, though if you want to put a lot of people through the system it would be necessary to scale up the systems processing power, with a corresponding increase in price.

A vision thing

Another vision of the future is offered by Phil Cunningham, a manager at PAC, who believes that the key to access control systems is the management of the information stored on them.

“Access Control is all about managing a list of people on a database, but in the future the technology will be used in a more intelligent way,” says Cunningham.

The backbone of future systems, he claims, will be browser-based user interfaces: “PAC is in the forefront of developing systems that are driven by internet technology, giving access via a browser-based user interface.”

What this could mean for access control is anybody’s guess, but perhaps access control will become more decentralised, more integrated with the users’ existing IT hardware and software and more flexible and user-friendly. Whatever happens, it is almost certain to become ever more a feature of everyday life.