Today we have a guest post from John Trader, with ACS Technologies partner M2SYS Technology. We recently wrote on the M2SYS blog about how Northwoods Community Church uses biometric technology to for fast and accurate check-in; read that post here.
Attend some church services these days and chances are you may discover biometric identification at child care check in or for youth services. Increasingly, churches are using vascular biometric ID at the point of entry in these areas because biometrics helps:
- Increase speed of check in
- Tighten security
- Reduce waste and conserve resources by eliminating paper or barcode cards
- Establish a tracking mechanism to keep accurate records
- Boost productivity of staff
When biometrics first arrived as an option for churches to consider as an identification mechanism for their management software, fingerprint recognition was the only option. However, as biometrics technology has become more refined and more modalities are developed, churches now have alternatives other than fingerprint, which has proven in the past that it sometimes isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. Even though fingerprint biometrics is a very solid modality and remains the dominant form of identification in the marketplace, fingerprints can be adversely affected by dry skin, roughness, moisture, scarring and climate which can cause problems with capturing accurate scans for positive identification.
Vascular Biometrics Bypasses the Need for Quality Skin Integrity
Then along came vascular biometrics which does not rely on fingerprints for identification purposes. Instead, vascular biometrics relies on capturing an image of the vein pattern beneath the skin with near infrared technology and using that as the basis for individual identification. So unlike fingerprint technology, the integrity of the skin is not an issue with vascular biometrics. By using near infrared light to capture a finger vein or palm vein pattern beneath the skin surface to identify an individual, vascular biometrics bypasses the need to have quality fingerprints in order to successfully use a biometric system that can identify nearly 100% of end users and allows biometrics to be used in environments that otherwise are not conducive to fingerprint technology. In addition, independent testing of vascular technology has provided results that prove it is just as accurate as fingerprints for matching.
Churches that may perceive vascular biometrics as too expensive will quickly discover that it is very affordable compared to fingerprint and returns on investment attainable by the efficiency advantages that it creates are higher over time. For example, finger vein and palm vein biometric readers will last longer compared to fingerprint readers because end users do not make direct contact with the device sensor, which can boost hardware longevity. Plus, contactless sensors make vascular readers more hygienic unlike fingerprint readers which require direct contact with a sensor. In a high throughput environment, this can be a benefit to cut down on spreading illnesses.
Recently, ACS Technologies switched their biometric hardware deployments to vascular readers only so if you are curious about vascular biometrics and want to find out more information, please contact ACS Technologies with your questions and they will be happy to provide you with more information!
John Trader is a Communication Specialist with M2SYS Technology.
Thanks for the opportunity to offer our view on why vascular biometric technology is catching on so quick for identification at churches across the country. We hope that this post will help shed some light on why it has advantages over fingerprint technology!