CARMEL, IND. - June 17,
2009 - Ingersoll Rand Security Technologies today announced that the Associated
Students at California State University, Chico (AS) uses seven Schlage HandPunch
time and attendance readers at employee entrances throughout the student union
and dining facilities to track the attendance of approximately 1,200 student
and career employees. Readers are used at the student union, student services
on campus, dining and food services. The AS is an independent student-directed
corporation that provides a wide range of services and programs for Chico State
students, faculty, staff and alumni. It is the largest employer of students
on the Chico State campus.
"Some of the employees
had become very clever in the way that they had friends clock in and out for
them," explains Matt Norby, IT director for the AS. "Some of these
areas were high volume, which made it quite difficult for the manager to track
such 'buddy-punching.' As a result, we decided to use hand geometry readers
to track time and attendance reporting."
Hand geometry readers continue
to be the dominant biometric technology for access control and time and attendance
applications. They are used in more biometric time and attendance systems than
all fingerprint and facial systems combined. Over 6 million people throughout
the world clock in and out of work with a hand geometry reader.
For time/attendance/payroll
use, AS employees use the keypad on the HandPunch reader to enter their ID number
and then place their hand in the hand reader. The reader simultaneously analyzes
more than 31,000 points of the hand's length, width, thickness and surface area
to instantaneously record more than 90 separate measurements and verify users.
"Being so used to computers
and other electronic gear, the student employees accepted the hand readers without
question," adds Norby. "Only a small group held the inaccurate perception
that biometric information could be stored for law enforcement or the government.
When we explained that only a mathematical equation, an algorithm, created from
the 90 points was stored in the hand reader, they were satisfied."
At Chico, the HandPunch
reader connects with TimeCentre software which feeds into the AS internal payroll
system SunGuard Integrated Financial and Administrative Solution or IFAS, a
financial and personnel management system designed for government, education
and other not-for-profit entities.
For more information on
hand geometry, interested parties can go to www.biometrics.schlage.com.