How to implement biometrics
Successfully implementing biometrics in your school. How can we ensure that parents and guardians accept this biometric technology?
The key to a successful installation of a biometric system in any school is to ensure that you and your senior management team get 100% support from students, staff and parents. The Government has recently issued guidance on implementing Biometric technology into schools and we contributed to the research by the DfES into the implementation of this new technology in schools.
- We advise schools to communicate their intentions to operate any biometric technology to parents at an early stage and if possible 5 to 6 weeks in advance of a 'go live' date.
- Consultation is the key to successfully implementing a biometric system.
- We strongly recommend that your school seeks parental consent when enrolling their child. If they refuse for any reason there is still a manual verification option.
- We provide schools with posters and information to display to students in advance of enrolment, in order to explain what the biometric system is and what the enrolment procedure comprises of.
- We also assist schools by issuing parent information letters that detail what the school is installing and how the technology works.
- We offer Q & A sessions to schools so they can invite parents, students and staff to ask relevant questions about the new technology being implemented.
How Does The Fingertip Scanner And Software Capture A Unique Identity?
VeriCool biometric software utilises the Digital Persona U r U 4000B optical scanner in conjunction with the Neurotechnolojica and Anteon (UK) developed biometric software application. The light on the reader is used solely to illuminate the fingerprint and the scanning device then effectively takes a photograph (which is termed as capturing the image). On a camera the image data would be stored so that the picture can be reproduced again & again. On the fingerprint reader most of the data is discarded and only a limited number (approx. 120) of random points on the fingerprint are retained. These are not stored as images but are converted using a complex mathematical process (i.e. an algorithm) to convert the image data to what is essentially a string of random numbers.
The algorithm used by Digital Persona is unique to them. It would be extremely difficult to "reverse engineer" the process to get back to the image data but even if that were achieved all that would be revealed would be the 120 random points of the fingerprint. It is impossible to "recover" the total fingerprint image. Even though the technology is so robust and even though the data cannot be backward engineered we strongly recommend that all parents are consulted before implementation begins.
What If A Parent Or Guardian Refuses To Allow Their Child To Take Part?
Importantly, for parents who do not wish to have their child’s fingertips enrolled into the VeriCool system, we have provided the school with an override option, so that these children can still be registered in class, or purchase in the canteen, using a manual verification process. This option also ensures that no free school meal students are identified even if they are processed manually.
Additional reading...
Optical Scanning Explained...
A straightforward guide to the functionality and purpose of optical scanning with VeriCool. Read the full article.
A letter sample intended to be sent to parents to inform them of a Cashless Catering installation. The sample can be seen on this page.
