Employee and Vehicle Access Control Systems
Employee and Vehicle Access Control Systems
sometimes find that tracking people involved in operations provides efficiencies in security, quality control, auditing, streamlined systems, vehicle management, performance statistics or all of the above.Companies world-wide already use RFID for employee access control systems. For example, because it's so common, most employees don't think twice when they're given a key card to control building access. In fact, people feel safer when working in a secure facility. But employees must be educated on how RFID access management technology will be used so they don't think they're tracked when going to the rest room. As humorous as this may sound, it is a legitimate employee concern.
PEOPLE-TRACKING TECHNOLOGY AND SOFTWARE INCLUDES:
• limiting access to a restricted area
• verifying that an employee has the license to operate a fork-lift, company vehicle or other piece of equipment
• knowing which employee performed a particular task, such as assembling a pallet of pharmaceutical products
• determining the points at which people should be identified before putting RFID tags on everyone. That decision helps determine if RFID is appropriate technology for your goal.
Just because a badge is read at a particular location, it doesn't mean the person is actually there; it just means the badge is. Depending on requirements, multiple methods of authentication, including biometric controls, may be used. For example, to access a certain area of a building, an RFID-enabled badge and a biometric device such as a retina or hand scanner may both be required before opening a locked door.
KNOWING RFID IS THE RIGHT SOLUTION
Since UHF tags are much less expensive than HF tags, and UHF equipment infrastructures are being implemented throughout the supply chain, we predict an eventual migration to UHF for employee authentication.
With the coming widespread use of passive tag UHF readers, if you are preparing to buy RFID, there may be advantages in sticking with one system and use the RFID readers being put in place as access control technology as well. However, HF has its proponents. HF is less susceptible to water in the human body than UHF and has a shorter read range. For staff access control, a reduced read range prevents a person from unlocking a door by simply walking nearby, requiring the badge to be placed within a few inches of the reader.
Shorter UHF read range can be achieved by reducing power emitted from nearby readers. The biggest challenge is that data stored on current UHF RFID tags can be easily compromised. Even with new standards, encryption that comes with less-expensive tags or control cards is not considered strong enough for banking purposes.
In 2004, the FDA approved VeriChip, an implantable RFID chip about the size of a grain of rice, for storing medical records for use in case of accident or other emergency. This is a new twist on such systems as Pet-ID, which implants tags in household pets in order to store owner and RFID tag data in a database. This system identifies and returns lost pets.
IMPORTANT REMINDER
When implementing people-tracking systems, consider ethics of personal privacy and what your employees may think, or assume, about being tracked. And keep them informed about what you're doing!
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