Antwerp deploys biometric ID system
Port of Antwerp has installed an Internet-based biometric identification and credentialing card-management system from Ingersoll-Rand Maritime Solutions. When fully deployed, it is estimated that credentials for more than 20,000 longshoremen, truck drivers and other employees and visitors requiring access to the port will be validated and recorded by the system.
Ingersoll-Rand also has designed an open-architecture database and supporting technological infrastructure through which the port’s 71 private terminals may access and use the card management system to secure their individual access points. Private terminals will have real-time access to data about all personnel cleared to do business with the port. Port authorities and government officials can obtain up-to-theminute reporting on all port activity for those access points intergraded into the system.
Ports are required to establish a process for tracking access by employees and visitors across private terminals under the ISPS Code.
Each of the 20,000 electronic identification cards are equipped with radio frequency identification (RFID) technology allowing cards to be read up to 10 cm away by each reader, facilitating fast movement through access points. The system stores information about employee certifications, work experience and access restrictions, as well as biometric identifiers.
The hand geometry of each card recipient will be prerecorded on each credentialing card for use at terminals employing Recognition Systems Inc. (RSI) biometric hand readers. At the entrance, the employee identifies himself by using the smart card together with a HandReader, which automatically takes a three-dimensional reading of the size and shape of the hand and verifies the user’s identity in less than one second. Scan information of his left hand is compared with the template information on the smartcard. He repeats the process upon leaving.
Built with an open architecture, database enables each terminal to integrate additional security and safety technologies, such as CCTV and time-and-attendance, with their individual systems through an XML interface as well as other open standards.
The card management system uses a powerful workflow engine coupled with full Webbased interaction, enabling the complex credentialing process to be carried out fast and efficiently across terminals and other systems. The Web-based reports can also detail the movement of employees and visitors through the port, among other information.
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