Physical access control with biometrics and mobile ID market showing strength

Biometrics and digital credentials for secure access control, more often than ever in the form of facial recognition for contactless authentication, continue to roll out.

SAFR, Biosite and HID Global have each deployed systems for new customers, as investment and acquisition activity within the security space is ticking up. The SIA has also released an updated security device protocol to ease its implementation.

Meanwhile, more than one in three physical security professionals are hoping for investment in facial recognition for their physical security environment, according to a new report from Genetec.

Video analytics, including facial recognition as well as applications like privacy protection or heat mapping, makes up 23 percent of technology other than video surveillance and access control used for physical security, according to the State of Physical Security 2020. Mask detection, temperature scanning and license plate recognition are also seeing significant deployment, according to the report.

SAFR deployed for UAE government agency headquarters

SAFR from RealNetworks and local partner EPM have reached what they describe as a “high profile contract” to provide authentication through face biometrics to a United Arab Emirates federal government agency for secure access control at its headquarters.

EPM’s security platform with SAFR mask and facial recognition has been implemented to the existing video infrastructure of the facility to enable convenient and safe contactless access for registered users. The contract follows a successful three-month trial, in which SAFR’s facial recognition securely authenticated 15,000 employees with near 100 percent accuracy and no false acceptance errors, according to the announcement.

“Outdoor secure access points have unique challenges due to varying environmental conditions. We have been impressed by SAFR’s ability to recognize faces even under changing light throughout the day and even at night — including for drivers when they are inside cars,” says Hadi Omer, director of Systems & Solutions, EPM, in the announcement. “We’re looking forward to a fruitful partnership and believe that adding SAFR’s high-performance computer vision to our portfolio of AI applications will offer even more robust and convenient secure access options for our customers throughout the Middle East.”

The deployment also provides SAFR’s liveness detection, and the company says its technology is 98.85 percent accurate for masked faces.

Biosite announces first deployment in Sweden

Assa Abloy subsidiary Biosite’s biometric technology has been deployed to a construction site near Stockholm to enable secure access control with the low-quality fingerprints frequently captured from construction workers, according to a company announcement.

Biosite has developed a unique algorithm for enabling biometrics with fingerprint from people in the industry, which is widely used at construction sites in the UK. With its adoption by construction company Betonmast, the company, which was acquired by Assa Abloy in February, enters the key target market of Sweden.

After pre-registration by workers with an online induction software solution, Biosite’s biometrics are deployed to turnstiles which secure access to the restricted area. There, 145 apartments are being built to provide young people with cost effective housing, heated only with geoenergy and solar panels and environmentally certified.

“For us, it is an important safety issue to know who moves in our workplaces,” states Betonmast Mälardalen AB CEO Marcus Garheden in the press release. “This solution is both secure and easy to install and manage. We also get a good basis for developing our processes and our planning and a better grasp of the actual workflows in our projects.”

HID Global wins customer for access control with mobile digital ID

Aircraft leasing company Avolon has selected HID Mobile Access from HID Global to provide secure and convenient access control for employees entering its facilities in Dublin, New York, Florida and Hong Kong.

Avolon is issuing staff digital ID credentials through HID’s Seos credential technology, which facilitates around-the-clock access for staff members and allows administrators to managed access privileges for the disbursed workforce from a centralized, cloud-based portal. Staff use the Mobile IDs on Android or iOS mobile devices with HID readers deployed to Avolon’s Dublin headquarters and other locations.

“Avolon’s use of HID Mobile Access makes touchless access control possible for a more seamless user experience, which is appealing to many organizations in the today’s new normal,” states Harm Radstaak, VP and managing director of Physical Access Control with HID Global. “The scalability of our solution also lays the groundwork for Avolon to easily extend mobile access across more of its facilities.”

M&A activity picking up in security space

A report on the security solutions industry from Capstone Headwaters suggests that more mergers and acquisitions could be in the cards

The report claims that leading solutions providers are positioning themselves for long-term growth in significant part by investing, both internally and externally. Merger and acquisition activity is down from last year by about 30 percent, according to Capstone, but was much higher in the third quarter after bottoming out at 18 deals in Q2. The deals covered in the report include the acquisition of Fulcrum Biometrics by Fujitsu Frontech North America, Titan Security by Doyle Security Systems, and NextGenID by Zeva.

The industry has largely bounced back from the lows it fell to earlier this year, in terms of EBITDA, and is expected to continue growing.

SIA updates security device spec

Security Industry Association (SIA) has released Version 2.2 of its SIA Open Supervised Device Protocol (OSDP) standard to allow for easier updates to the specification for devices like card readers and control panels to work together.

SIA OSDP is more robust in security and functionality than the widely-used Wiegand standard, according to the announcement. It provides a two-way channel and encryption for advanced security technologies like biometrics, as well as smart cards and government applications that require Public Key Cryptography (PKI) or Federal Identity, Credential and Access Management requirements.

Article Topics

access control  |  biometric identification  |  biometrics  |  Biosite  |  contactless biometrics  |  facial recognition  |  fingerprint biometrics  |  HID  |  market report  |  mobile device  |  SAFR  |  Security Industry Association (SIA)  |  video analytics