The International Security Conference and Exposition will be taking place April 5-7, 2011 in Las Vegas, Nevada at the Sands Expo and Convention Center. The show will have many special events such as a golf tournament, awards, customer appreciation reception,… Read More
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Proximity Card Access Systems
What is a proximity access card? A proximity access card is a card about the size of your driver’s license that can open and activate doors so that the holder of the card can enter. Embedded in the card is… Read More
Multispectral Technologies: Infrared Sensors More Than Night Vision
One of the many improvements made on infrared (IR) cameras in the last decade is multispectral technology. This feature operates different sensors from the same aperture of the camera and sometimes from the same semiconductor. These sensors can detect different… Read More
HSPD 3 scrapped
And just like that, the color-coded terrorist warning system has gone away. Actually, it wasn’t quite that abrupt. This article notes that the threat warning levels formulated in Homeland Security Presidential Directive 3 (HSPD 3) was used less and less during the past few years. Although the threat level changed 16 times since its 2002 introduction, two recent attempted attacks passed without a change in the threat level.
Smart card basics
In a recent post, we referred to the growing use of smart cards to advance electronic access control and wanted to explain a little more about these smart cards. This article offers a good summary, but we’ll condense it a little more.
What’s happening with infrared technologies?
It’s been exciting to see infrared sensor technologies develop over the years. Early infrared sensors, which can provide better images than conventional CCTV cameras especially at night, were too bulky and expensive for most organizations to employ. As outlined in this article, improving technology has made infrared technology more widely available.
Access control going electronic
Just how much is the popularity of electronic access control systems growing? This article provides some insight and states that they are one of the fastest growing sectors of the security industry. Biometric systems and smart card technology are among the developments spurring this growth.
A broader view of access control
There’s more to effective access control than just putting up some fences, cameras, and security lighting. As this article outlines, access control also encompasses determining which zones of a facility require protection and what level of protection each zone requires. Access to these protected zones almost always involves a method of identifying personnel, and there are many different ways of doing this. Here are two main categories.
Eyeing Iris ID
One of the most promising developments in biometric identification has been iris recognition systems. As this article explains, this technology makes use of the unique pattern of specks in each person’s iris to verify the identity of that person. Iris scanning has been used on a limited, experimental basis in both the U.S. and Europe and offers many advantages.
Biometrics in action
The last few years have seen a much wider application of biometric technology to improve access control and security. This article cites several of these uses, which demonstrate the potential of biometric identification. Here are a few of these applications.