oday, an increasing variety of schools, col-leges, hospitals and other organizations are looking to technology to address security and safety challenges, including controlling access and improving student and patient safety. K-12 school district officials, for example, seek more effective ways to track student arrivals and departures on school buses in an effort to keep them safe. Universities always need reliable ways to protect high-security buildings,

such as research laboratories. Healthcare facilities continuously strive to prevent the spread of infectious diseases by deploying technologies that don’t require a human touch. These are just a few examples.

Standard security protocols such as lock and key, magnetic stripe, and proximity and smart cards have all been deployed to manage building access, but these mechanisms can be lost, shared, misplaced or stolen. With increasing frequency, systems that rely on usernames, passwords and PINS are breached, ex-posing personal data to fraud that results in billions of dollars in losses each year. Experts agree that campuses require a better way to verify identity.

Now more than ever, security professionals are implementing biometrics into their security protocols because these systems don’t rely on keys or cards, which are easy to compromise. Bio-

metric technology uses a person’s physical as well as physi-ological attributes, such as his or her iris, fingerprint, DNA, and hand or face, for instance, rather than a card or key to validate the individual’s authorization to access a building, computer net-work or vehicle.

The advantages of biometrics are significant. With this tech-nology, it is much more difficult to replicate and present fraudu-lent identity. Users, in essence, cannot forget, lose or have their biometric codes stolen because these “access credentials” are part of their bodies. The deployment of biometric devices can result in significant economic savings for an organization be-cause it reduces the high costs associated with card and key management. Moreover, there are biometric technologies that don’t require the user to make physical contact with a reader or sensor at all, thereby helping to prevent the spread of disease in medical facilities year-round, or at any high-traffic facility dur-ing flu season.

CAMPUSES IMPROVE SECURITY WITH IRIS RECOGNITIONOne biometric technology in particular that offers statistical advantages that provide value across key security attributes, including speed, reliability, easy-of-use and cost effectiveness, especially in education and healthcare environments, is iris authentication. The iris provides the most distinct qualities

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How to Implement Biometrics on Your Campus

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Selecting the right biometrics technology for your organization can improve access control, save resources, reduce identity theft and increase overall campus efficiencies.

every day about their children not showing up at home when they’re supposed to,” says Blaine Frederick, Global Biometrics Director for STANLEY Security, which of-fers the EyeLock brand of iris authentica-tion technology.

Such iris authentication technology at school can greatly reduce this challenge by confirming attendance through moni-toring student arrivals and departures via school buses. The technology can also be used to keep track of checked library books, take classroom attendance and support cafeteria point-of-sale.

of all biometric factors; it is the colored part of the eye that surrounds the pupil. Every human iris is different, with each iris containing over 240 unique points of distinction. The iris is also the most stable of all biometric factors, save DNA, making it an extremely accurate and reli-able biometric tool.

How can campuses implement iris recognition as part of their security proto-cols? Once enrolled in the system, faculty, staff and students simply look at the iris reader that is conveniently placed beside or above a doorway, a trestle or even at a

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computer. The reader then authenticates the individual by taking a simple video of their iris, converting it to a template (code), and then comparing that template to those stored in their database to ei-ther permit or deny access to the build-ing, vehicle or network. This technology is also particularly useful for elementary and secondary school districts that must monitor the safety and security of large numbers of children going to and from school on school buses.

“We’ve talked to school districts that field literally dozens of calls from parents

There are significant differences between iris authentication and retina recognition. The iris is the colored part of the front of eye, while the retina is the back part of

the eye that converts light into signals the brain can understand. Retina scanners shine high-intensity light into the back of the eye through the pupil to capture an image of the vein pattern. Historically, retina scanners have been considered by many to be a highly invasive measure.

By contrast, iris authentication from EyeLock utilizes a simple video camera to identify the enrollee’s iris, much like any person with a smart phone would do when taking a video of a family member or friend. Obtaining this type of data is much easier and less obtrusive than obtaining retina biometric information.

Iris Authentication vs. Retina Recognition

Iris recognition technology can be deployed on school buses to monitor student access and verify that they are getting to and from school.

EyeLock’s iris authentication readers, like the one pictured here, use video to convert your iris to a unique template in order to

authenticate your identity.

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HOW IT WORKSIris authentication is second only to DNA in terms of accuracy in authenticating the identity of individuals because of the uniqueness of each person’s iris pat-tern, as noted earlier. Consider just how unique: no two human irises are alike — ever — not in paternal twins, not in identi-cal twins, not even in the same person. As such, here’s how school administra-tors, for example, can use EyeLock iris recognition. Students can be enrolled in the system by having video taken of each student’s eyes. This video is then convert-ed into a code (a mathematical represen-tation of the iris). The original image is then automatically destroyed, protecting the enrollee’s identity — and all of this occurs in less than one second. The code is then encrypted for additional security.

Using the school bus example men-tioned earlier, once the enrollment pro-cess is complete, a student who wants to board the bus can quickly look into a

mounted reader without even having to break stride. The system then compares the student’s iris to the template that is stored in the school’s database. If the reader recognizes the student, he or she is allowed access to the vehicle.

How difficult is it to replicate the iris for fooling or defrauding an iris authenti-cation system like EyeLock? The system utilizes liveness and a series of anti-spoofing techniques to ensure that a live person, not a photograph or video, is be-ing authenticated.

“Basically, you can take those 1s and 0s and publish them on the front page of the New York Times, and no one could do anything with them,” says Frederick.

These characteristics remain virtually unchanged from the time of birth. How many are there? In terms of colors, pat-terns and unique crypts, there are over 240 distinguishing characteristics that simply cannot be replicated. In short, there are no attributes, movements or

behaviors of the iris that can be coun-terfeited.

Beyond schools and universities, iris authentication technology can be utilized across a wide variety of environments and applications. Healthcare campuses, medical centers and doctors’ offices are using iris authentication to verify that pa-tients are receiving the proper treatment and medication, protecting against proce-dural mix-ups due to mistaken identity. In banking, when integrated into ATMs and bank software architecture, the technol-ogy greatly secures transactions to miti-gate, if not altogether eliminate, the risk of fraud and identity theft.

IRIS AUTHENTICATION PREVENTS ID THEFT AND SPREAD OF DISEASE

Many in the biometrics field favor iris authentication over other forms of bio-metrics, including fingerprints and facial scans, because the iris remains biologi-cally constant, making security breaches nearly impossible. Also, unlike latent fin-gerprints that are left behind and can be copied, the iris cannot be left behind.

Another benefit of iris authentication is that it is an extremely effective, hands-free, touch-free, hygienic technology, pre-venting the spread of disease. Also, com-pared to fingerprint and hand geometry readers, which require significant upkeep because users are physically interacting with them, maintenance with iris authenti-cation is a non-issue.

Lastly, some iris authentication tech-nology such as EyeLock can recognize an individual’s iris while at a distance and in motion, at a rate of approximately one person per second. This high throughput

Four Deployment Tips for a Successful Biometrics ProgramSchools, universities, hospitals and other organizations con-sidering the implementation of biometrics technology should consider adopting the following policies and procedures, many of which have been recommended by the U.S. Department of Justice and IBG Bio Privacy Initiative.

1. Publicize your program. Before implementing any biometric program, communicate to parents, employees and students via letters, E-mails, social media, traditional media and in-person meetings the nature of the system and technology being deployed. This will help stakeholders better under-stand the use, safety and simplicity of the program and appreciate its intent and scope. Be certain to acknowledge the social and cultural context that affect people’s privacy expectations regarding the information being collected and how it will be used. Maintain as much appropriate transpar-

ency as possible, and obtain parental permission when minors are involved.

2. Adopt systems that can protect user privacy. Ensure you have a solution from a trusted vendor that can adequately establish and control information quality and access.

3. Delete original biometric data. Original facial images, fingerprints, iris images or voice recordings should only be used to generate an encrypted template. Once that is done, the identifiable data should be destroyed.

4. Adopt an opt-out policy. Provide users with the ability to opt-out of the program and control the usage of their or their child’s biometric information. They should be able to correct any information stored in conjunction with their data. Alternatives to the biometric program should be avail-able and should not be punitive or discriminatory.

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EyeLock Iris Biometric Solutions, for today’s security needs. STANLEY’s revolutionary EyeLock iris biometric solutions provide fast, accurate, easy-to-use, and cost-effective identity authentication.

1-855-310-1243 www.stanleysecurity.com

“Ensuring campus personnel can quickly and easily gain access with a blink of the eye while knowing we have the utmost security—that’s my need.”

-Campus Security Director

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capability reduces lines and backups at traffic-heavy building access points.

For all of these security benefits and more, iris authentication is a wise choice

for controlling access, not only on school campuses, but in all high-traffic environ-ments where the highest security mea-sures are paramount.

Benefits of Iris Authentication

• Seamlessly combines security and convenience to deliver a trusted, user-friendly means of identity authentication

• Eliminates the hassle and cost of replacing keys, mag stripe cards, proximity cards or smart cards

• Requires less maintenance than other biometric and access control systems, since there is no physical interaction between the users and the readers

• Prevents the spread of germs be-cause it is a hands-free technology

• Allows for high throughput: for example, depending on the make and model, as many as 50 people can be processed through an EyeLock system per minute

• Integrates simply with existing access control and time and attendance systems, for example some EyeLock models connect via Wiegand, F/2/F, Relay and Ethernet

Iris recognition technology can be deployed in a wide variety of environments. Here, an employee is able to quickly enter the office building where he works by looking into an EyeLock iris recognition reader placed on a turnstile.