Pros and Cons of Time and Attendance Software

If you are working in a firm then you must be aware of the time and attendance software that every company has installed. The first activity that you do upon entering your office gates is punching your attendance. You are asked to log in with your card, give your fingerprints, or whatever the procedure demands from you. This is the time and attendance software. Some companies are still doing it the old school way while others have gone on to use the latest methods of biometric time and attendance software.

So, just as every other company on the block is adapting to the new style of noting the time and attendance of a company, there are certain pros and cons for the same. As biometrics help you to give the right kind of accuracy, let us start with the pros first.

Benefits of biometric time and attendance

• The time at which you step in your office premises, that exact hour, minute and second is registered in the company system giving it the accurate data for its record.
• There is very little scope of any kind of human error and this makes the biometric time and attendance all the more reliable.
• The company will benefit from the accurate time and avoid any breach of information and everything is secured.
• The biometric time and attendance will help in preventing buddy punching as everyone will have their own face or fingerprint as their access card. So, no one will be able to check in on behalf of their colleagues.
• The company’s administration load will be lowered and moreover they will save a lot of time which otherwise would have gone in manually handling all this information.

The Disadvantages

• The cost is the main disadvantage of the biometric time and attendance software. A lot goes in installing this software and this is the reason why only the big firms and companies have the biometric software installed.
• Although, the load on the managers will decrease, there has to be one employer with the biometric device the whole day to ensure that the biometric system is working properly.
• The reliability of the biometrics like the fingerprints is not reliable in the case of excessive chemicals. This may also happen when the environment makes the biology unreliable.
• The facial features of a person changes over the course of time with age. This makes the facial recognition software very unreliable, if it is not updated regularly. It at least takes more than a year for the facial features to change, so a re-scan of the face needs to be done every year to ensure that there is no loss of individuality.
• Another problem with the biometrics is the change in the facial features of a person due to the health. Yes, if a person has diabetes or any other physical ailment, there is a significant change in the eye color. This change can be detected as a false positive by the time and attendance software.

So, just like any other technology, the time and attendance software has a fair number of pros and cons, too. But, this technology is being touted as the next big thing when it comes to securing national and international level information.

Time and Attendance software is scalable and can be easily implanted in modules. It includes HR functions such as absence management, access control modules, and fire evacuation that offer an integrated solution for workforce management. Thus, we can use it to its full potential now, and hope it improves with time in the coming days as the software overcomes every kind of shortcomings it generally faces. 

The Importance of Time and Attendance Software in Business

Any large company must deal with loads of paperwork that must be completed within a stipulated time. If the paperwork is manageable by one employee then there is no problem but what about the workload that requires detailing and the smallest mistake that can ruin it? Such scenarios are especially common in large firms that have a huge amount of day to day data to take care of.

The Principle of Time and Attendance Software

As important it is to have everything right in the time and attendance, it becomes even more important for this information to be correct. When big companies have to retrieve the time and attendance details of employees, the Human Resource is bound to make mistakes for the simple fact that they might end up making an error which can result in a huge loss. This is why manually sorting time and attendance is not only a tedious and risky task, but it is time consuming. Moreover, there are many instance of a proxy punching. Yes, that happens a lot. Just like you had the proxies for your college classes, you have buddy punching in the corporate world. Where the friend of one of your employers has punched and marked the attendance on his/her behalf so that they don’t lose out on the pay.

To reduce the redundancy of the time and attendance operation, a new, virtual technology has emerged. With this technology we get precise results because it cannot be tampered, and there is no scope for human error. 

  

How it Works?

The time recorded or the attendance clocked is entered in the system with the help of biometrics and proximity machines. It is an accurate way of keeping the data records correct and no buddy punching is possible, because biometrics is indigenous to a person. This technology has evolved over time with fingerprint, hand scan, retina scan and of course the facial recognition.

Another important method that helps in recording the time and attendance is of course the proximity clocking. Every employer has a unique serial number which ensures that there is no fraud in the system and only that particular individual can clock in and clock out with their cards.

So, which technology suits your company better? This can only be answered by you. But it has been proved through recent studies that having a digital time and attendance software can actually help your company in saving up 80% of the administration time.

The digital time and attendance software can give you complete access of whatever your employees are up to. Moreover, you get to track their absence trends without losing the actual information and record. This technology can reduce complex methods to store information and give you every kind of leverage on the functioning of your company.

Today, companies are rapidly adopting this innovative, affordable, and easy-to-install time and attendance tracking software for tracking their employees’ productivity and simplifying their HR operations by managing attendance on a digital platform instead of the bulk paper work.

Benefits of Face Recognition Software

When it comes to the security, people take several stringent measures because no one wants a thief coming to plunder your hard work. This is the reason why the types of security systems have evolved over time. The famous one is the biometrics because nobody can copy your body! When it comes to biometrics, the most famous type of security system is the fingerprint which is widely used for securing the highly classified documents or the security boxes where people keep their valuables. 

Moving on from this conventional form of biometrics, we now have the facial recognition software that is known for keeping every kind of fraud at bay. Today, technology companies are inspired by this innovative technology and developing robust facial recognition software. It is highly secure and prevents any kind of thefts. With the use of this biometric security system over time, officials have come with several evident benefits like :

The time fraud will cease

Yes, everyone will have their unique password which is their face and for this reason, the time fraud will stop. Each employee has to go through the process of checking in as others won’t be able to punch in for their friends or colleagues at the office.

The security will improve manifold

The simple reason behind this is the time attendance tracking. People will be tracked continuously for their every movement preventing any kind of misuse by the employees. Employees who are added to the attendance tracking software will only be given access to the buildings and unauthorized people will be removed and denied entry.

The automated facial system

Yes, the whole biometric tracking system will be automated and guards needn’t supervise their monitor screen 24*7. This will increase the security as the biometric system will alarm the officials when it notices any kind of unauthorized person in the premises.

The integration is very easy

You don’t have to spend a whole day to integrate the biometric facial security in your company because they will work just fine with the existing software of your company’s system. Moreover, integrating the facial recognition software in your system is no rocket science. A person who is familiar with technical specifications can work on the installing and integrating process. One can also get the facial recognition software for your house.

With the biometric security systems in place, you don’t have to worry about the security of your company or your home because the computer system will track the time and attendance of every individual who steps in the premises of your company. Moreover, it is extremely tough to fool the face recognition software. And it is becoming better day by day, thanks to the technology and the latest in the line of this security system is the 3D version of it.

Do you want to restrict unauthorized strangers entering your premises ???

Among various Biometrics techniques, Facial Biometrics is an emerging non-intrusive technology - there is no need to carry any keys, card to access, no need to remember passwords, presence of foreign bodies in fingers causing verification delay can be avoided.

This video shows the system where we installed Facial Biometrics device fixed on Access Control Terminal (Tripod Turnstile). Only the enrolled user will get verified and hence, allowing access only to those. Hence, the logs of the users accessing turnstile can be noted for Attendance management.

This provides you highly secured environment and also attendance of the employee can be monitored propoerly.

For more videos, Click here

Penetration of Biometrics 

Biometrics are the measurable biological or behavioral characteristics used for identification of an individual. Fingerprints are a common biometric used, but others include things like DNA, irises, voice patterns, palm prints, and facial patterns.

Over the years, biometrics has been incredibly useful not only to authenticate an individual’s identity, but more importantly, to figure out who someone is (by a fingerprint left on a murder weapon or a bomb, for example), typically by scanning a database of records for a match.

Fingerprint Biometrics

Fingerprints vary from person to person (even identical twins have different prints) and don’t change over time. As a result, they are an effective way of identifying fugitives and helping to prove both guilt and innocence.  

Fingerprint access for buildings is not new. Many high security facilities have used biometric technology for years when it comes to ensuring only authorized personal gain access to the most well protected establishments.

When it comes to blood bank; identity is pretty important. In the past donors were issued with blue cards containing all the information required. More and more these days that crucial data is being stored digitally – with donors using finger print or iris recognition to access their vital details.  

As well as ensuring that only pupils and authorized adults gain entry to school buildings, biometric data is also used for activities such as; recording attendance, checking out library books or even paying for meals. 
 
Inttelix, now expanded its range of Biometric products and solutions partnering with, as a wing of Realtime (Power of Biometrics).

Inttelix FRS based Access Control System

More Secured and Automated FRS based Access Control System

• Automatic access control & monitoring
• Restrict personnel access as per business rules
• Allow clocking-in the employees as well tracking the employees
• Real-time reporting of Entry/Exit  of persons
• Can stop Buddy punching and timing-manipulations
• Reduce human errors and access to real-time accurate information
• Detailed reports can be generated in few seconds
• Provides valuable services to employees and management & employee/employer interests protected

Regards,
Inttelix

How Can You Make Your CCTV Surveillance System An Intelligent Application?

People spent a lot of money in CCTV Surveillance systems and most of them think that, as far as security is concerned, they have already done! But in my opinion, its a passive kind of system. if the control room guys are not doing diligent work, I think there is no benefit the organization is going to get from that investment. Secondly, you cannot store the data for over say one or two months, because of the storage limitations. So, if you want to diagnose an issue after a quarter or so, I don’t think any CCTV solution can give any clue to you.
Wherein, by scaling the same CCTV system with a Face Recognition Server, you can do wonders. In my opinion, the investment will be a few lac’s, but the outcome is really appreciable.

How you do that? You have to have just another PC based server for Facial Recognition solution (FRS). Give the CCTV video inputs to FRS system. FRS system is capable to identify the face images from the video streams and it can store it in a proper RDBMS as facial templates. This data can be used for any forensic purpose at a later date. This way you can store the images of all the persons appeared in front of your system for say any number of years and it needs very limited storage space. Since the image can be stored in a professional database with date and time stamp, this data can be queried as per your requirement.

Suppose you have another Suspect database of people who you never wanted as a visitor to your factory or office or shop, the same FRS system can scan the live face and match with the existing suspect database and throw the similarity level to your security personnel by SMS alerts or system pop-up in control room, you can take further course of action as the case may be. This way you can prevent an unwanted event for you yourself.

Another extension of the same system can give you Face Counts, Gender Detection, etc. this also can be a really a valuable information for you to do some research on your visitors, especially if you are from marketing research or a simple shop owners who want to know his customers.

Similarly, there are many applications that are today available which can really change the way you think on security. We can discuss about this topic more in my future articles.

Long Range Facial Recognition Binoculars

The United States Navy is looking to procure a set of binoculars capable of reading faces from up to 650 feet away for identification purposes.
Department of the Navy, seeking a “Wireless 3D Binocular Face Recognition System,” the Navy is looking to aid stand-off identification of uncooperative subjects.

“High level, it’s a surveillance and identification system,”  “It’s using the ubiquitous binocular for real-time identification. The data point here is that this is to be used to add objectivity to an operation that’s highly subjective. So this is not intended for kinetic action to go arrest or detain someone. It’s more a tool to put other eyes on him or her.”

The technology essentially already exists as StereoVision has already developed a facial recognition binocular system, called 3DMobileID, which uses a three-dimensional recognition system, though it is only capable of scanning faces a maximum of 100 meters away. 

Long range identification systems are slowly making their way to the mainstream. AIRprint, a unique fingerprint scanner that can effectively scan fingerprints from as far as six meters away, recently saw a significant increase in demand following being listed in 2012′s “best of what’s new” list in Popular Science. 

Forensic technologies market to reach $17.7 billion by 2019!

According to a newly-published report, the forensic technologies market, which includes biometrics, has been valued at USD $8.3 billion in 2012 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 12.4% from 2013-2019, to a total of US $17.7 billion in 2019.

Also, as the report notes, the DNA profiling segment is expected to grow at an 11% CAGR in the same period. Currently, in terms of geography, North America and Europe have a higher market share, but going forward, it’s expected that Asia Pacific and RoW regions are expected to gain about 60% of the global pie.

Currently, the market is dominated by the Government and as the report also indicates, publicly-funded forensic labs account for about 60% of the forensic technologies and services market share.

iPhone fingerprint speculation has positive impact on industry as a whole

Whether or not Apple integrates a fingerprint sensor that works has yet to be seen, but one thing’s for sure: all of this speculation has had a positive impact on the biometrics industry as a whole.

Since before the launch of the iPhone 5, the internet has been ripe with rumours that Apple was looking to integrate a sensor into its iPhone, and last year, that intent became pretty clear when the tech giant scooped up prevalent fingerprint sensor manufacturer Authentec for a cool US$356 million.

Fingerprint Cards, which manufactures small fingerprint sensors and has many customers in the mobile space, has also seen tremendous growth over the past year.

Another recent research report on the global multi-factor authentication market projects that the market will reach $5.45 billion by 2017, and gives a big nod to biometric identification technologies for its role in the space.

LG puts buttons on back of G2 smartphone

LG is hoping to shake up smartphone design by placing the only physical buttons of its new flagship model on the rear of the handset. The firm says the G2 addresses the problem that mobiles become harder to control the bigger they get.

The South Korean company recently reported its strongest ever mobile phone figures. However, analysts are split over whether or not their latest innovation is a winner. The new device features a 5.2in (13.2cm) screen and is powered by Android. Its rear keys can be used to adjust its volume or - if pressed for a longer time - to activate the device's camera and note-taking software.

LG suggests that using a back-button to take a self-portrait with the front camera also makes it easier to take a steady shot. "Moving the main buttons to the back of the phone gave users more control since this place was where individuals' index fingers are naturally located," it said. "Researchers also found that moving the buttons also resulted in fewer dropped phones when adjusting the volume while talking."

LG overtook Huawei to become the world's third best-selling smartphone maker in the first three months of the year thanks to demand for its Nexus 4 and Optimus range, according to market research firm Gartner.
One of its researchers suggested the move could indeed help address issues consumers have with the design of bigger mobiles.  Research suggests LG is the world's third bestselling smartphone maker
 
"This is a potentially interesting concept for LG because as phones get larger, the position of the phone in the hand and how you use it is going to change," said analyst Brian Blau. "Whether the button on the back proves to be a winner long-term has yet to be determined, but it deserves some amount of consideration."

Recognizing People by the Way They Walk

Recognizing people by the way they walk can have numerous applications in the fields of security, leisure or medicine. This new biometric technique that takes into account the way a person walks and his/her silhouette offers significant advantages as recognition can be done remotely and does not require the cooperation of the subject.

Detecting suspicious behavior (video surveillance), access control to buildings or to restricted areas and demographic analysis of a population in terms of gender and age range are just some of the possible applications of this technology.

Walking Pattern

The role of biometrics as an artificial intelligence field is the identification of an individual based on certain physical and non-transferable aspects of his/her body, such as fingerprint or facial recognition. These are just two of the most widely used and developed biometric sources because, as the researcher states, "they are very reliable and difficult to fake, although both require that the user is close to the sensor and collaborates in the recognition process, and we can not always count on that” Hence, the importance of advancing in complementary techniques.

Silhouette

We all have a very personal way of walking. "Although it is easy to manipulate and consciously change, each person walks in a different way" There are experiments in which a person has to recognize familiar people just watching his/her silhouette in motion and the success rate is very high,” It has to be kept in mind that there are several factors that influence so that each person has a unique way of walking. From a video of the subject walking, the developed system distinguishes the background silhouette and it becomes a sequence of silhouettes, placed one upon the other, resulting in a summary image. This final representation stores all physical appearance and movement of the person walking, thus getting a unique mark for each of them.

For now, due to the margin of error that gait recognition has in not controlled real scenarios, this technique would be much more effective if combined with facial recognition. "They are complementary methods: the way you walk can be detected from a distance and does not require a high-resolution image (it can be done even against a back-light and with poor lighting), while face recognition is performed close-up and with a high-resolution image. In this way, surveys could be carried out in a wider range of conditions or, if both methods are applicable, results could be more reliable thanks to contrasting hypotheses about the identity of an individual generated by two biometric systems."