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
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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.
Biometric basics
Biometric identification, as this article describes, is being used more and more for security purposes. Privacy concerns hindered development prior to the Sept. 11 attacks, but some biometric technology such as fingerprinting and DNA identification made inroads. Now, there are a wide variety of biometric technologies available for access control and other security purposes.
Building on HSPD-12
Last month the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that they are working together on two memos regarding federal secure identity management cards. These are cards that were issued in accordance with HSPD-12, which we talked about in our last post. There’s not much info on what these memos will say, but this article offers some speculation about them.