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One
of the organ being used maximum is our hand which is used for handling
things, and to write etc. Our hands, Palms and Fingers there are natural
lines which are called, Palm Line, Fingerprint. It is quite interesting
to know that all these lines differ from a person to person, and there
are only 1 in a Million chance of duplication. It is noted that these
lines appearance differ in each person due to various reason such as
Physical , Nature of work and Health of the person.
X-RAY
Fingerscan system.
Fingerscan
a Biometric based Technology system uses the uniqueness in each person
to identify and authenticate that who is that person and is he supposed
to be person he should be. The Fingerscan system
is now being used widely for various applications such as for
Time Attendance, for Access Control etc.
It
can be seen that the Fingerscan system is effectively and rapidly
replacing the earlier equipments used for
Time Attendance such as Signing the register, Card Punch system,
Magnetic Card, Bar Code Card and Proximity Card Readers.
Recently,
representative of Bangkok Systems & Software surveyed 5 Industrial
Colonies and found that the Fingerscan system is gaining popularity
in the Labor sensitive organizations both in Thailand and
overseas because it can effectively prevent buddy punching which is one
of the major factor in high production cost and at the same time save
cost and time on the card
management due to loss of the cards or damaged cards or problems due to
duplicate cards.
The
survey found that about 30 % of the factories are still using the Card
Punching system while 55 % of the factories contacted said that they are
using the card based systems such as Magnetic Card, Bar Code Card and
Proximity Card. At present there are only 5 % who are using Fingerscan
Technology. This is quite opposite of the Factories in Europe, America
and Australia where 85 % of the factories are using
Fingerscan and the remaining 15 % uses the Card Based systems.
In
Thailand, Fingerscan is being used in the Banking Industries, Medium and
Large Factories which is considered to be very small number. Ajay Pawa
Sales representative of Bangkok Systems & Software Co., Ltd.
has been in the Fingerscan business for the last 8 years said that
In
Thailand, some of the Banks are using the Fingerscan system for Access
Control to the Server Rooms and Data Centers while the factories having
over 500 staff started realizing that the Fingerscan is an investment
not expenses because it helps them controlling the undue wages
paid out every month as a result of buddy punching and wrong time
clocking
How
does the system works?
When
the users enroll the Fingerprint, the system will create a Template and
store it in a database. Whenever, the finger is placed on the platen or
the sensor , the system will verify with the Templates in the database
and will give out the message as the case may be for example : If the
verification found the similar template, it will inform the user with
the Green Light as well as with the voice message saying
Verification OK while if it could not verify then the Red Light will
be on and the voice message Verification Fail will be audible.
While
using the Fingerscan, the finger should not be too cold or too dry as
these systems are Biometric systems and looks for the live finger. Many
times it happens that the
user has problem in verification because his hands are too dry or too
cold and the system consider it to be a mold or silicon finger. To
overcome this problem is quite easy as all they have to do is to rub
their fingers for few seconds, this will help in changing the fingers
temperature and makes it easy for verification. Now, if the finger is
wet, when the users put his finger on the scanner, the water acts as a
lens and create distortion on the fingerprint which in this case will
make it difficult to authenticate of comparing with the fingerprints in
the database and will ultimately reject and gives out Verification
Fail Message.
In
this case all is to be done is to wipe the hand and clear out the water
. This will make verification easier. Some of the Fingerscan system
works with 2 functions that is to Key in I/D and then place the finger
for verification In this case if the verification is successful, it will
also display the users I/D on the LCD screen just like using the card
readers, while some of the system works on single method that is to
place the finger for verification right away.
Developing
the System locally
The
Fingerscan system available in the market are imported from many
countries such as : Australia, Korea, Taiwan, USA etc. Earlier the
company was importing the system from
Australia and USA. The earlier models, the user has to Key in his
I/D and then place his finger for scanning . Later on the system was
developed to scan directly without key in the I/D which helps in
reducing the processing time.
The
1st model brought to Thailand by Bangkok Systems &
Software Co.Ltd in 1995 was imported from Australia. It was very
expensive because of the Technology to convert the Fingerprint to
Digital Format as the International Human right Laws does not allow the
Private organization to keep Fingerprint and the system was specifically
produced for commercially use.
In
this system, the templates were stored in the unit it self with
individual PIN for each user, and to verify, the user has to key in his
template I/D for the system to retrieve the template for quick
verification. One used, the system would create log record called
transaction which would be down load to the software provided for using
the records in other applications. Whether the verification was
successful or not could be noticed by the Red Signal in case of Fail and
Green signal if the verification was successful said Ajay
After selling the system for couple of years , the manufacturer came out
with a newer and better version called V.20 The difference in this model
was that, it could store the template both in Pattern as well as
Minutiae format. The advantage of storing in the Minutiae format was
that it would take less space to store each template which resulted in
more templates or fingerprints could be kept that is up to 512 templates
which could be expanded to store 32,000 templates unlike the earlier
version which could store a maximum of 1,200 templates only.
Storing
the Minutiae instead of Pattern format is a new technology which stores
the Minutiae Points
(
The joints or cutting marks or the branching on the fingerprints) and
then converting them into Digital format. The speed remained the same as
the earlier version which was at not more than 5 seconds per person.
Asia
a new player in the field
With
the increase in popularity and acceptance
of Fingerprint system in Asia, the Asian manufacturing countries
like, TAIWAN, CHAINA AND KOREA turned
to develop the system which helped in dumping the market price of the
system due lower manufacturing cost. Apart from that, when many
manufacturer started coming into the fields, it resulted in the price
war of the system which resulted in more demand and pushes the price
down further.
Since the demand in Asia was increasing rapidly, many players turn up to
compete with the European manufacturer taking the advantage of lower
wages which help in cutting down the production cost drastically. The
first Asian manufacturer came into the arena was I D Link, which was a
computer based system which did not have the built in processor like the
American system.
The
second player in the Asian market was China who introduced BIOCLOCK
Fingerscan to the market. Bio Clock came in 3 models and all of them
were computer based system. This system had an edge over the American
system that , the user could verify by putting his finger on the scanner
without key in the I/D , this help cutting down the processing time to 3
seconds. But the system was not effective if used by more users
continuously as it would either stopped functioning or authentication
time would become longer. The users were quite dissatisfied with this
model and the quality was so poor that after a year, the unit has to be
changed.
With
the new developments and cutting down the cost, the demand of the
product increased rapidly and newer version with additional features
were developed for the convenient of users .
The example of this is FINGERLOCK PRODUCT from Korea which came
not only with the Fingerscan but with build in Lock and Latch which
could be installed at the door directly. This model is used to secure
the rooms where Important Documents or Antiques are stored at
residential building and entry is restricted to the owners etc. This
model can store anything between 30-50 fingers which is good enough for
the family members or people authorized for the entry to such rooms
The system reduce
the installation process which can be done easily by following the
instructions given in the manual by any carpenter. The only disadvantage
of this model is that the users can not get the access report. As a back
up measure in case the unit mal-function, it comes equipped with
Emergency to unlock the door.
One
of the major problem encountered by the Fingerscan Distributors in
Thailand is that, with the absence of the Manufacturers representative,
it becomes difficult to get the after sales support and availability of
the spare parts which are essentially required to service the buyers. We
had to keep big inventory of the spare parts which became a dead loss as
half of the parts were not
used at all while some part
were not sufficient and we had to bear the extra expenses to service the
users. With this problem we decided to Developed our own Fingerscan.
With
our experienced of the Biometric system we improved the working
of our Fingerscan MINUTIAE with the additional features which includes :
·
1
TO MANY SCANNING SYSTEM, this means that the user need not to key in any
I/D or Pin before scanning. All he has to do is to put his finger on the
sensor and the system will work and authenticate him automatically.
·
Our
system can enroll up to 5 fingers per user and he can use any finger
without prompting or selecting the finger he wants to use incase his
regular finger is injured.
·
Our
system can be used for both Access Control and Time Attendance functions
at the same time . This helps cutting down the investment in the
systems.
·
Built
in Time Zone system for Access Control purpose.
At
present , we have 3 models in the production line and each has got its
own features which are :
PREMIER
: This is the top most model and can be used for either Access Control
or Time Attendance at the same time. This model is meant for heavy used
and is being used in many factories and organizations having over 500
users.
PRO
: This model is specifically designed for Access Control purpose.
SME:
Has been designed to serve the small offices where there are 30-70 users
The requirement
changes with the time and convenient of the users. We have now designed
Fingerscan with Kiosk both Wall Mounted and Stand, this model comes with
the LCD monitor where the
users can see his details on the screen after scanning. This is just to
ensure that the users data has been recorded.
Another
model has been designed to install in the elevator to restricted
unwanted visitors from the Restricted floors like a10 stories building
in Silom which is used for Office / Residence. The visitors can move up
to 6th floor without any problem while going to 7th-10th
floor has to scan the finger to activate the Floor key pad.
The
system is also being used in many Universities hostels by installing the
Minutiae Fingerscan to the turnstile to restrict only the genuine wards
of the hostel to access the residence area.
ELIMINATE
BUDDY PUNCHING:
Many
factories has turned to use Fingerscan for Time Attendance because if
its ability to eliminate buddy punching fully. Apart from that, since
Finger is part of our body, it also cuts out the excuse of forgetting
the card or loosing the card unless his hand has been cut off due to
accident.
One
of the organization did a survey with more than 200 factories and found
out that over 40 % of the factories are facing the BUDDY PUNCHING
PROBLEM and are loosing anything between 5-15 % because of wrong time
punching . If we take an example of a factory having 500 workers and is
paying a salary of 5,000 per worker which total to Baht 2,500,000 per
month. If we take 5 % Loss into consideration, the establishment will be
loosing 125,000 per month for no reason. This is where the Fingerscan
comes into the picture to protect and prevent buddy punching.
THE
USERS
Everyday,
Sudarat Laphun, 24 years old peon of the company
clock in her Time Attendance using Fingerscan which is installed
at the Card Punch area.
She
said that earlier, the company was using Card Punch system, and the
management allowed 10 minutes late in. The staff is paid Attendance
allowance, but if they are late on
any day, the Attendance Allowance would be waived. To be eligible
for the Allowance, they started asking their friends to Clock In for
them incase they are not in by the set time. Once,
Fingerscan was introduced, this part was taken care automatically.
On
the other hand Preeyanand , another 234 years old staff in one of the
company who was using the Bar Code card Time Attendance system said that
She was happy that she need not to sign the register everyday and at
the same time, The system is also used
for Access Control and it gives them the sense of security that
undesired people can not access the premises. The disadvantage is that
if she forgets the card, she has to ask her friend to open the door for
her. Her company also gives the Attendance Allowance to those who comes
in and leave on time. But most of the time, she would not get the
allowance because she forgot to record her attendance or because she
comes in late. It also happens that the Card reader would break down
every know and then and the staff could not proof their timely
attendance. When the Fingerscan was introduced , many problems were
eliminated.
ANOTHER
STEP OF BIOMETRIC SYSTEM
Apart
from Fingerscan system, Iris scan is also entering the market for Access
Control and Time Attendance. However, the Iris can has not so far proved
its effectiveness as the users are worried that if they uses it for a
long time , the rays entering their eyes might damage their eye sight
which is the most sensitive organ of our body. Ajay who has been with
the biometric system for a long time said that General opinion is
not accepting the IRIS scan
has got many limitations such as :
Our
eye has to contact the device which will send some sort of rays or
radiation into our eye to authenticate our self. Nobody feels
comfortable when some thing which we do not know keeps on penetrating
into our eyes daily.
Another
major problem is that , we all have different height and how are we
going to install the system so that people of all sizes can use the
system conveniently.
Not
only that, the system has not justify effectiveness for those wearing
glasses or contact lens.
Another
major problem which no body has given any answer is that what will
happen if the person who has used the system before us is suffering from
some eyes contagious disease. Is the system capable
enough to prevent this ?
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