June 23, 2003—Iris recognition cameras have been installed in the school district of Plumsted, New Jersey, in an innovative program designed to improve school safety overall. New safety systems have been developed using the unparalleled accuracy of iris recognition technology to establish the identity of both school employees and parents.
The New Egypt school buildings in Plumsted, New Jersey, now use iris recognition to tightly control admission to the buildings. School employees have instant access to their elementary, middle, or high school building when they glance at an iris recognition camera and the security software locates their unique iris image in a database of enrolled employees. Any school employee who is not enrolled and other visitors to the school must now use a buzzer-intercom system and video cameras to establish their identity and gain admission.
Parents and other caregivers can also be enrolled in the system to streamline the process of picking up a child for early dismissal. A camera located at the front desk allows a parent to quickly confirm their identity. When the parent glances into the camera, their child’s name will appear on the computer screen to confirm that they are authorized to pick them up. Nonparticipating parents must show an ID and wait for their information to be typed into a computer before their child’s name is confirmed.
According to BioMetric Solutions Group, one of the distinct advantages of iris recognition technology, in addition to accuracy, is that it is an opt-in biometric. The technology only works when people volunteer to stand in front of the camera, and it cannot work without their permission. Biometric says it found school employee and parent acceptance of the technology to be very high.
The concept of combining an iris recognition based identity system with an Entry Access Control system was the result of the combined efforts between the New Egypt Board of Education and New Jersey Business Systems as they pursued the National Institute of Justice’s grant for “Technology to Improve School Safety.” “We selected iris recognition because it is the most advanced form of identity we could find,” said Raymond Bolling, Vice President of New Jersey Business Systems.
The Entry Access Control solution was developed by BioMetric Solutions Group (BSG), a division of Information Systems Support. BSG has integrated Iridians Private ID and KnoWho technology to implement the latest generation of iris recognition technology and will be certified as part of the Iridian Proof Positive solutions.
