CARMEL, IND. - May 28, 2009
- Ingersoll Rand Security Technologies today announced that San Diego State
University's (SDSU) Associated Students has just celebrated eleven years (since
1998) of using 12 hand geometry readers to provide easy access into the six
entrances at the Aztec Recreation Center plus the Aztec Center bowling and games
facility and the racquetball court inside the Center as well as the four entrances
to the Aztec Aquaplex. The Associated Students of San Diego State University
(AS-SDSU) is an independent student-directed corporation that provides a wide
range of services and programs for SDSU student, faculty, staff, alumni and
the general public.
The Aztec Recreation Center
(ARC) is made up of four multi-purpose gyms, cardio room, weight training room,
fitness room, 30 foot climbing wall, bowling alleys, racquetball courts, personal
training, massage therapy and offers intramural sports, sport clubs and recreational
classes. The Aztec Aquaplex includes a 50-meter lap pool, recreation pool, hydrotherapy
spa and aquatic equipment. Various activities, including water aerobics, are
held there. Both can only be accessed by members. Approximately 85 percent of
the members are students. The rest are made up of faculty, staff and the community.
"The HandKey readers
minimize people's ability to transfer ID's for admittance into our Center,"
avows Vicki Greene, Member Services Coordinator for the Associated Students
of SDSU. "ID switching is very big in the fitness club industry. The hand
readers also allow us to provide better service. No longer do our members have
to remember to bring an ID card. That's the beauty of them. This also means
we don't need to have an employee out front checking cards.
"In addition,"
Greene states, "we feel that hand geometry is the least invasive of the
biometric technologies and seems simple compared to the others. We average 4,000
entries per day and have 16,000 active enrollees."
Instead of verifying a card
or code, the Associated Students' HandKey readers verify the person who is at
the entrance. It looks at the three-dimensional size and shape of a member's
hand. The result of ninety hand measurements, including lengths, widths, thickness
and surface areas, is converted into a nine-byte mathematical representation
of the hand, which is stored as a template for later use and verification.
To enter the AS-SDSU facilities,
a student simply enters her unique ID number on the HandKey's keypad and presents
her hand to gain entry. Verification takes only a second.
The HandKey readers are
networked using Schlage HandNet Lite, a free biometric template administration
software package for distributing the hand geometry templates across the network,
allowing a member to enter any of the approved entrances.
"We're sold on the
hand geometry readers for this type of application," Greene affirms. "We've
recommended them to our sister California State University Associated Students
organizations. They're already in use on the San Bernardino and Fullerton campuses
while Chico is now installing them this summer."
For more information on
hand geometry, interested parties can go to www.biometrics.schlage.com.