ACS: a look into the near future.
As an integral part of security systems, ACS have significant potential. They are able to interact with other information systems that ensure the functioning of buildings and company management. First of all, we are talking about building management systems, personnel management systems and commercial systems.
This position of ACS in relation to other systems is explained by their direct interaction with users. Receiving maximum information about people's actions (including from other security systems), they can share it with other building systems. This greatly simplifies and stimulates their work, allowing owners to achieve significant energy savings.
For example, real data on the time of arrival and departure of workers from the building allows you to regulate the microclimate and lighting in the workplace. Considering the significant contribution of these systems to energy consumption — up to 60%, savings from the use of such algorithms can be 10-15%.
The same information processed for the accounting and HR departments of the enterprise allows for the automation of the calculation of wages, vacations, and the recording and analysis of attendance for each person.
As a result, the costs of the accounting apparatus are reduced, and the manageability of the enterprise is increased. Another example: the unification of card technologies in the ACS allows for the integration of commercial and social applications at the card level: an internal settlement system, medical information, an electronic wallet, and much more.
CARD TECHNOLOGIES
The emergence of cards as a universal means of identification, key and storage device gave a significant impetus to the development of ACS. The most promising technologies today are proximity, SMART, RFID.
PASSIVE PROXIMITIES
Despite the widespread use of this type of cards and their obvious advantage over magnetic and Wiegand analogues, they still have a high price — about 5 US dollars and a limited reading range — up to 15 cm. Taking into account modern requirements for the functioning of ACS, we should expect a price reduction to 2-3 dollars and an increase in the passive card coverage area to 1-1.5 meters within 3 years. The latter allows for the implementation of hands-free technology.
SMART
The main disadvantage of smart cards is their high price — 25-50 US dollars. This is due to their more complex design and the presence of a built-in microprocessor. However, for many applications, these disadvantages are outweighed by the following advantages: high security and multifunctionality. The latter quality offsets the price of the card if, in addition to the ACS, it is used as an electronic wallet and a storage device for various personal data.
RFID
The security market is eagerly awaiting a breakthrough in hands-free technology. These expectations are linked to the predicted results demonstrated by Radio Frequency Identification technology. In the future, this will allow the user to move around the building without taking out a card. The access system itself will track the movement of a person, capturing radio signals from a tiny transponder at a distance of up to 4 meters. The same technology will be used to track the movement of valuable property.
So far, the implementation of RFID is held back by the high cost of equipment and poor protection of transponders from shielding. However, according to analysts at Frost&Sullivan, with the introduction of «frequency hopping» technology and the reduction in the cost of a transponder to $1, the introduction of this ACS technology is inevitable. The reduction in the cost of a transponder is already taking place due to the spread of RFID in warehouse accounting and logistics systems. Annual growth rates are up to 35%.
BIOMETRICS
Biometric ACS, which include such technologies as identification by retina, handprint, hand geometry, signature and voice, are not yet quite ready for practical service use.
Even the most interested in biometric technologies organizations — military, nuclear facilities and banks — are still continuing experiments. The main obstacle to the implementation of biometrics in access systems remains the speed of recognition. This does not allow its effective use at facilities with a large number of users. Most likely, biometric ACS in the form of an electronic door lock will be, first of all, in demand in the private housing market, where the speed of recognition is not of great importance. The leaders among biometric technologies are identification by retina, fingerprint and hand geometry. It is expected that within 5 years, acceptable parameters for the speed of recognition and false alarms will be achieved.
The development of computer networks in buildings is pushing owners to solve a complex psychological problem — integrating security systems into a common corporate network. Until now, security services have been able to convincingly prove the need for separate existence of a computer network and a security service network.
However, as in the case of introducing a computer, the security service will have to give in. A software platform for such integration exists — this is the TCP/IP protocol and the WINDOWS NT, 2000 operating system.
REMOTE ACCESS CONTROL
One of the key capabilities provided by ACS is remote access control in buildings located hundreds and thousands of kilometers away from the operations center. Widespread use of such solutions is limited by the capacity of telecommunications lines. First of all, this is due to the need to transmit high-quality video images at a normal speed (20-25 frames per second from each camera). The creation of such inexpensive channels with a transfer rate of hundreds of gigabytes per second is a matter of the future. Today, no technology is capable of providing such performance, so we can only hope for a possible technological breakthrough in increasing data transfer flows.
ACS are progressing at a significant pace. They affect the efficiency of related systems and absorb the latest available electronic technologies. How, in these circumstances, can we determine the sufficiency of a particular ACS design scheme? The answer is simple: ask a security professional and together with him select an acceptable solution for you.