School trials edge facial recognition from Innovative Technology for easy staff access

The ICU Pro edge facial recognition solution from Innovative Technology has been successfully trialed for safe and seamless staff access at the St Alban’s Catholic Primary School in Warrington, England.

This is according to an announcement from the company which states that last year’s pilot program was intended to ensure staff members have quick, safe, and easy access into the school campus, also helping to keep both staff and pupils safe within the school environment. Student facial recognition data was not collected.

Innovative Technology noted that it was “fantastic to see our facial analysis technology being used to ensure only authorized staff can gain access via a hygienic contactless system, keeping both staff and pupils safe in the school setting.”

Jane Hardman, head teacher at St Alban’s, praised the process, saying it helped in their COVID risk assessment efforts. “Our new facial recognition system is state-of-the-art and just brilliant. It has helped towards our COVID risk assessment as staff do not have to touch the keypad to gain entry to the building,” says Hardman.

Innovative Technology explained that ICU Pro uses a contactless facial recognition system which identifies and allows access for authorized persons whose face biometric templates have been added to a database. It runs on local ICU hardware and does not require internet connectivity, ITL said.

To check the identity of a person seeking access, a camera connected to the ICU takes a photo of them. The photo is then converted into a face template and match with the one already stored in the authorized database. The door will automatically open for the person in the event where there is a match. In the case of a non-match, no access permission is granted.

No other data is stored on the data except that authorized biometric templates, the company said.

Article Topics

access control  |  biometrics  |  biometrics at the edge  |  contactless  |  facial analysis  |  facial recognition  |  identity verification  |  Innovative Technology  |  pilot project  |  UK