From The Field

Jul 1, 2007 12:00 PM

Hotels

Lake Tahoe Resort Employs Smart Card-Based Lockers

The Northstar on Lake Tahoe, a 2,420-acre year-round resort located near the North Shore of Lake Tahoe and one of the top 30 ski resorts in North America, has integrated smart card technology from LEGIC Identsystems Ltd., Naperville, Ill., into its ski room and family lockers. The locker locks are battery-operated via a LEGIC data carrier, or credential, that is integrated in a guest's pass. Each guest receives his or her own pass that corresponds with a locker. Company representatives say the system has proved popular among guests. The resort plans to supplement the locker system with an electronic access control system for access to the ski room.

Healthcare

George Washington University Teaching Practice Protects Patient Records With Biometrics

The George Washington University (GWU) Medical Faculty Associates in Washington, D.C., is a 300-physician multi-specialty practice that functions as the primary teaching practice of the GWU School of Medicine. To protect patient medical records, the practice uses VST (Vector Segment Technology) software from BIO-key International Inc., Wall, N.J., to facilitate secure authentication and login to the TouchWorks Electronic Health Record program from Allscripts, Chicago.

The VST software enables physicians and resident physicians-in-training to log into their patient records program without the need to remember passwords. Staff members place their finger onto a fingerprint reader in order to gain access to the program at computer workstations located throughout the medical facility. The BIO-key VST software reads the fingerprint and matches it against a database of authorized user fingerprints. If the match is successful, a clinician can gain access to the system. The process is as fast as typing in a password and is more secure. TouchWork also connects physicians electronically to laboratories, pharmacies, insurers and other healthcare stakeholders. Physicians use the program to complete daily functions such as documenting patient visits, prescribing medications, ordering lab tests and viewing the results.

“Fingerprint identification guarantees that each patient's private medical information remains private, because while passwords can be shared, a doctor's fingerprint cannot,” says Praveen Toteja, chief information officer for Medical Faculty Associates. “Using their finger to access information in Allscripts is convenient and allows us to ensure that only authorized staff can access patient records.”

Public Facilities

Hoover, Davis and Parker Dams To Receive Upgraded Security Through Video Surveillance

The Bureau of Reclamation of the U.S. Department of Interior (www.usbr.gov) has awarded Sim-G Technologies, Washington, D.C., and Integrated Security Solutions, Kalispell, Mont., a $4.1 million contract to engineer, design and install upgrades to the electronic security systems of the Hoover, Davis and Parker Dams. The dams, located in Boulder City, Nev., near Bullhead City, Ariz., and near Parker, Ariz., respectively, will be outfitted with electronic systems to increase the safety and security of visitors, employees and assets.

The integrators will incorporate Intelligent Video Surveillance (IVS) systems from Phoenix IVS, Miami. The systems incorporate video analytics software to detect, track and send real-time alerts to patrolling security personnel when people, vehicles or other objects of interest are determined to have breached pre-determined security rules. They can be integrated into the existing CCTV surveillance systems at the dams or be configured to perform video analytics at the network edge as with many new installations.

“The greatest value of this type of system is having technology to determine proactively, in real time, without human intervention, when a security breach is occurring and to alert security personnel to respond immediately; often before a more serious event can occur,” says Dr. Al Esquivel Shuler, CEO, Phoenix Worldwide Industries Inc.

Work is already under way at Hoover Dam and is expected to be completed by September, with Davis and Parker Dams to follow.

Public Facilities

Biometric Reader Simplifies Season Passes At Martin's Fantasy Island

Martin's Fantasy Island, a family theme park in the hub of Northern New York's Niagara Region, is using HandPunch geometry readers from Ingersoll Rand Recognition Systems (IR), Campbell, Calif., to verify its season passholders. The biometric readers also prevent pass-backs, during which several people could use a single pass to enter the park. HandPunch readers take a three-dimensional reading of the size and shape of a hand and verify the user's identity in less than one second.

“We previously laminated cards for season passes,” says Mike McGuire, customer service director for Martin's Fantasy Island. “We discovered that some people were creating their own season passes to get into the park. Therefore, we needed to implement a more secure system.”

After consulting with Plasco ID, a Miami-based provider of identification systems, the Martin's Fantasy Island staff decided to deploy BioParkPass, a passholder verification system that streamlines the process of tracking guests and uses hand geometry as the credential. The system integrates the IR HandPunch as its biometric authenticator. The park ordered three hand readers, two to be used to register guests and the other at the front entrance gate for passholders to use. “Today, when season passholders arrive at the front entrance, they swipe their pass and then present their hand to the hand reader,” McGuire says. “If they are indeed the passholder, a green light flashes, and they are immediately let in. This gives us much better verification than the pass alone. It also speeds the passholder into the park quickly.”

The system gives a record of how many times the passes are used, which helps the park determine future costs of the pass since they can now determine usage trends and which days of the week are busier.

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© 2008 Penton Media Inc.

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