In this episode of CampusIDNews chat, Jeff Bransfield discusses how campuses are looking at biometrics to replace traditional access control methods like ID cards or mobile credentials.

Biometrics, such as face and palm recognition, are becoming popular in gyms, athletic centers, and other areas because of the convenience they offer. Bransfield explains that managing physical credentials has always been challenging, and using the human body as a credential makes things simpler.

Traditionally, biometrics were used in highly secure labs and areas requiring two-factor authentication, but now they’re expanding into everyday spaces like rec centers and student facilities. The idea is to streamline access and make it easier for students and faculty to move around campus without worrying about carrying a card or phone.

The fingerprint was a little more invasive and you had to touch the reader, so it took longer than some credential-based access controls. Facial identification changes that by reading as you're walking.

There are various types of biometrics—fingerprint, face, iris, and even gait recognition—but Bransfield points out that face and palm recognition are becoming more popular. These modalities are less invasive and easier to deploy than fingerprint systems, which used to be the most common but required more effort to enroll users and manage templates.

As the technology has improved, face and palm recognition have gained traction because they allow for a more frictionless experience. For instance, facial recognition works passively, identifying a user as they approach, making it quicker and easier than older systems.

Privacy concerns have been a longstanding issue with biometrics. People worry about how their data, especially facial images, might be used or stored. Bransfield stresses that biometric systems don’t store actual images of faces or fingerprints. Instead, they create a binary representation—a string of ones and zeros used for identification. This means there’s no photo stored, and the data is secure. Most systems discard the image immediately after creating the template, offering even more privacy protection.

It's becoming more of a convenience layer. It is less for added security than that individuals want to use biometrics to access everyday openings throughout the campus.

Another important distinction Bransfield makes is between facial recognition and facial identification. Facial recognition is often associated with video surveillance and used to pick people out of a crowd, like in airports or large events. This technology is used for security purposes like criminal investigations. On the other hand, facial identification is a more intentional and opt-in process. Users willingly register their face as a credential and use it for specific access, such as entering a building or room. This is more about convenience and less about surveillance.

ASSA ABLOY acquired Control iD, a biometric technology leader in South and Central America, and is now bringing their solutions to the U.S. and Canadian markets. Control iD’s products are particularly useful for higher education and other institutional settings where managing physical credentials is a challenge.

In contrast to facial recognition, facial identification is very much an intentional act of me opting in to use my face as my credential to access a certain area within my facility.

What makes Control iD’s biometric readers stand out is that they function as both readers and controllers. This means they can make access decisions directly at the door, without needing to communicate with a central control panel. They can be deployed as standalone devices or connected to an access control panel, depending on the campus’s needs.

Check out the full interview by clicking the image at the top of this page.

To learn more about Control iD readers, click here.

TRANSCRIPT

Credentials on campus are not always plastic cards or mobile phones anymore.

In a growing number of use cases, biometrics seem to offer a preferred mode of identification and on campus rec centers and athletic facilities and locker rooms and highly secure labs are frequently turning to biometrics to increase security and convenience.

But there may be more to it on campus than even just that. With me today to talk about this is Jeff Bransfield. He's regional director for digital access with ASSA ABLOY.  Jeff, thanks for joining us. Yeah, thanks for having me.

Let's start off by saying or talking about where do you see biometrics heading specifically in the campus market? What's on the horizon?

Yeah, the conversations are evolving every single day. I think the use of biometrics is really becoming more of a common discussion to really bring that convenience layer into security, which doesn't include convenience for so long, right?

So the challenge of the credential and managing the credential, managing that identity has really evolved over time and the technology has increased in capability and availability to really give some more options to use the human being as the credential.

It’s become more of an everyday discussion of how can we leverage the things that we already are to bring us into that security layer.

Okay, and do you see it moving into other applications on campus? I mentioned in the opening that it's not maybe just secure labs anymore.

Yeah, for a long time it was really that conditional layer. It was that two-factor authentication, leveraging biometrics to those ultra secure facilities.

It's becoming more of a convenience layer. It is less for added security than that individuals want to use biometrics to access everyday openings throughout the campus.

Now it's becoming more of a convenience layer that I want to use my finger or face or palm or whatever I'm using for biometrics to access my everyday openings that I'm getting into throughout the campus.

So the rec centers, the athletic facilities, the things that you think about which is difficult to carry a credential to are becoming our everyday topics of discussion on campus, yes?

Lots of modalities out there. We've fingerprint, face, iris, crazy things like Gates, which I guess maybe is not crazy anymore. But with all these biometric modalities, are you starting to see one or a couple kind of become the main ones that campuses are interested in?

Yeah, I think the technology of biometric devices has evolved massively over the last few years.

So in the past, the entry-level price point was always kind of leaning towards fingerprint just because it was less intensive to deploy. But it was also one of the more difficult to manage because the templates needed to be very, very much enrolled on the device.

They needed to be very good capture at the time. So it took a lot of logistical pain to get the fingerprint template involved.

So we're seeing the technology has definitely increased to take things like palm or take things like face or iris. Those are easier to grab, maybe face and palm more than iris as far as the templates.

But yeah, we're seeing some evolution there to start leveraging some of the more automatic parts.

The fingerprint was a little more invasive. You still had to touch and do those things. So it actually took longer than some of the credential-based access controls versus facial identification. It's just getting it as you're walking.

So it's really that frictionless deployment that we're seeing that people are grasping.

As an industry, I know we've worked hard for a long time to get people past the fear of biometric technologies. By trying to push the message that your images aren't stored. You're not storing a picture of my face in the system that can be used for other purposes. It's really just a string of zeros and ones that form a template that's created from the measurements and the certain parts of my face or my fingerprint or whatever the modality might be. Been fighting it for decades, maybe even at this point. Are you still seeing that concern on campus? Are you having to fight that battle every time you step on a campus still?

I have that conversation every day. And that's good because people are learning the process. But yes, to your point, technically it is. It's storing a binary representation of my face. It's not storing a photo of my face.

It's all ones and zeros. It's just the algorithm that it's processing all of those data points.

We even have devices that can go so far to say, just discard a photo, don't keep a photo.

When I walk up, it doesn't even show my cardholder photo in the system.

In contrast to facial recognition, facial identification is very much an intentional act of me opting in to use my face as my credential to access a certain area within my facility.

So you can really go to that layer of conserving that privacy.

From the other side of the spectrum, the conversation of the human understanding of what biometrics really is, in regard to face, for example, we're having a lot of conversations around facial identification and facial recognition.

They're completely different technologies and different use cases.

Facial recognition is typically applied to a video surveillance layer to where it's identifying a face from a crowd in general surveillance for use for forensic find, criminal investigation, et cetera.

These are used in high traffic environments. You see them in airports, sporting events, malls, et cetera.

Facial identification, though, is very much an intentional act of me opting in to using my face as my credential to access a certain area within my facility.

So they're different conversations and it's very intentional.

I'm opting in to registering my face as my credential and I'm knowingly doing that act as I approach the opening, versus just walking into a general population area and being picked out of the crowd.

So they're two different processes and two conversations that we're having.

And it's very important for people to understand when deploying facial identification that it's very much an intentional use for frictionless access control leveraging biometrics.

A couple of years ago, late in 2022, Asa Abloy acquired a company called Control iD that has some pretty cool looking biometric readers. Can you give us a little update on that? And let me know where that might fit in the campus setting.

Absolutely. In October, 2022, it's been almost two years ago, the acquisition was complete with Control iD. Control iD has been doing business in access control, biometrics, process automation, time and attendance in South and Central America for years.

We just this year have been bringing these products to the United States, Canada, and we're really excited about the opportunities that it's granting our teams as we're going out and providing these solutions to our customers, especially our institutional customers like higher education.

A lot of the market's been asking for this. Control iD has been a fantastic partner. It's been a fantastic add to our portfolio.

The total cost per opening really, really starts going down at that point with a panel-less deployment.

It's revolutionary in what it can do and all of the different aspects in higher education, but also, we're having a conversation with K through 12, commercial, you name it, where people are really getting into that convenience of the credential, because that's the hard part of access control is managing that piece of plastic or managing that mobile credential or even better securing those credentials.

We're really, really excited about Control iD being part of our brand. You can see over my shoulder has really been fun to have as an option.

All right, so I've got one more question about the Control iD readers. You've talked about them being kind of unique and even maybe revolutionary. Tell us why, what's different about that reader than other devices?

Yeah, so we're working really well with a lot of our OEM software, OEM partners to develop native integrations to the product.

What that means is that we can actually deploy the Control iD, so ID face that you see over my shoulder, it actually is a reader controller.

It's got an external access module built into it that actually allows for you to process all of those yes and no decisions at the opening.

I can wire all of my peripheral devices to the access module itself. So I can deploy, especially with either standalone or with some of our OEM integrations, a panel-less integration.

I don't need to rely on an access control panel to make those decisions. I can actually deploy it with a panel-less deployment.

Our total cost per opening really, really starts going down at that point.

I assume too it's great for really remote locations too and things like an area where it might be the athletic locker room where it's a very fixed number of people and you know where they are.

Yeah, so you can deploy standalone. We can do it connected to a panel if you so choose. We can do our OSTP out or we can actually do a native integration as I spoke earlier.

Awesome. Okay, well it's a great update. They really are cool looking. I hope to check them out at a show or something like that.

Anytime. I know more about biometrics now than I ever thought I would, so.

Well, Jeff, thank you. We've been talking with Jeff Bransfield, Regional Director for Digital Access with Asa Abloy and I appreciate you joining us.

Thanks Chris.