Biometrics in Education

1. BIOMETRICS IN EDUCATION STUDENT TRACKING/SCHOOL LUNCH LINE BAYOMETRIC MARCH 10, 2017 Written & Compiled By Danny Thakkar CEO & Co-Founder

2. “ Biometrics in the U.S. education sector is set to become a $70 million market by 2019. That’s a growth rate of almost 30%. ” TECHNAVIO A leading market research company.

3. BIOMETRICS IN EDUCATION INTRODUCTION Biometric technology is an evolving field and is increasingly becoming more powerful and cost- effective. It is no longer limited to just high security government and banking applications but also making inroads into the education sector. Educational institutions understand the need for security and accuracy in student attendance tracking and hence look for a fast, reliable and cost-effective solution. WHY DO SCHOOLS NEED BIOMETRICS? Students are required to identify themselves for attendance and also for getting access to services within the school such as in the cafeteria, library etc. The commonly used methods of identification in schools such as paper based attendance; picture ID cards, PINs, card punches and ofcourse visual identification has their own sets of issues. A lot of time and resources are spent by the teachers and administrators to compensate for the limitations of these methods. Students regularly forget their cards or the cards could be lost, stolen or mutilated. PINs can also be easily stolen, lost or forgotten. Visual identification is also a poor solution especially for large group of students and is tough to execute given the current security concerns and reporting issues. Thus these methods have loopholes and cannot prevent proxy attendance, ID card thefts or errors in attendance tracking. All these methods have an effect on the education quality and time wastage of teachers and administrators. Image 1: The first reported use of biometric systems in U.S. schools was at Minnesota's Eagan High School in March 1997. - Wikipedia Biometric attendance systems are already widespread in various industries such as workforce management and biometric technology is already an accepted method of identification. Among all the biometric technologies, fingerprint recognition is the most widely used and is a cost-effective solution. It is a better and faster identification solution as compared to other methods such as swipe cards and PINs. It can also prove to be an effective tool in protecting student identity and privacy. Biometric solutions can help streamline school operations and also increase teaching time by eliminating the unnecessary hours spent on error tracking and reconciling of attendance Bayometric sales@bayometric.com 1743 Park Avenue t. 877.917.3287 (USA) San Jose, CA, 95126 t. 408.940.3955 (INT)

4. BIOMETRICS IN EDUCATION data. Technavio’s latest report on biometrics in the education sector in the US states that multi- factor authentication and the availability of single sign on solutions have supported the rapid adoption of biometrics technology in this sector. Analysts have thus predicted a growth rate of close to 30% between 2015 and 2019. permanent throughout a person’s life. Also, the widespread availability of fingerprint recognition devices has made it a forerunner in the implementation of biometric identification systems. All biometric technologies have their strengths and weaknesses and the key is to finding the right technology suitable for the application. Fingerprint technology has a very high rate of accuracy, easy to use, fast matching rates and also cost-effective. It is one of the oldest identification methods and has been successfully implemented in a variety of applications such as border control, banking security, workforce management in factories etc. Moreover, each of our ten fingerprints is different from one another and also from the fingerprints of every other person. Fingerprints are unique to even identical twins. All these characteristics make fingerprints an ideal biometric trait for personal identification. Compared to cards or PINs, students would never forget their fingerprints nor can they be lost or stolen. How does biometrics achieve this? Biometrics is an automated method of identification which is based on the physical traits of an individual such as fingerprints, iris, face etc. These traits are unique to each individual and can help distinguish a person from the entire global population. These traits are inherent to the individual and they cannot be stolen or easily duplicated. These characteristics make biometrics technology very popular for identity verification. WHICH BIOMETRIC TECHNOLOGY IS TO BE IMPLEMENTED IN SCHOOLS? Earlier it was unthinkable that a futuristic and high cost technology like biometrics could be implemented in a school environment. But the rapid advancements in this technology and the availability of biometric devices have made this technology affordable and practical. Now biometrics is being used in schools all over the world. HOW DOES FINGERPRINT RECOGNITION WORK? Fingerprints are composed of ridges and furrows on the finger surface. The points where the ridges end or cross each other are known as minutiae points. It is the pattern of these ridges and furrows as well as the minutiae points that determine the uniqueness of fingerprints. Fingerprint recognition, facial recognition, retina scan, voice recognition etc. are some of the biometric technologies that are available nowadays. Of all these technologies, fingerprint recognition is by far the most recognizable because of its familiarity, ease of use, uniqueness and permanence. Fingerprints are unique to each individual and remain The matching degree between the minutiae patterns and furrows is one of the most important factors in fingerprint identification Bayometric sales@bayometric.com 1743 Park Avenue t. 877.917.3287 (USA) San Jose, CA, 95126 t. 408.940.3955 (INT)

5. BIOMETRICS IN EDUCATION and can help determine if two fingerprints are from the same finger. The students need to be first enrolled in the biometric identification system by scanning the fingerprints. Sometimes the scanned fingerprints are not of optimum quality and hence image enhancement techniques are used to remove the noise. Unique characteristics such as minutiae features are extracted from this enhanced image and stored in the templates database. For biometric student identification to work, they should have been enrolled in the system. security by helping to efficiently manage student tracking and attendance. There will be significant saving of time and money by the improved operations. A well-known application of biometric technology is tracking the attendance of students and teachers. Access control is an important issue and being able to provide a safe and controlled environment is critical to the success of a school. Deploying biometrics in school attendance systems enables the administrators to provide accurate records of persons entering and exiting the school premises. Students, teachers and other visitors can be accurately identified using fingerprint recognition and the biometric attendance system will automatically record the check-in and check-out times. Later when the student returns to be identified, his finger is scanned again by the fingerprint reader and the software compares this new template with the already existing templates in the database. If the templates match, the student is identified and allowed access. Fingerprint biometric identification is very fast owing to the small size of the template. The whole fingerprint image is not stored in the templates database. Only the unique characteristics such as the minutiae points are extracted and stored which makes the template size small. Thus the identification and matching process is completed in a few seconds. No fingerprint image is stored at any time and recreation of fingerprint image from the template is also not possible. Thus we see that it is very accurate, secure and the fastest biometric identification method. A biometric attendance system can be installed at the school front door or in individual classes to identify students and teachers for every roll- call. Such a deployment requires enrolling the fingerprints of all students and teachers in which the fingerprints are scanned, converted into a digital template and stored in a database which will later be used for matching and verification. When a student or teacher scans his or her fingerprint to enter the school, it is compared with the fingerprint templates in the database and access is granted only when there is a positive match. Such a system ensures that the individuals entering the school actually belong there. Also the administrators will have an accurate time-stamped record of every person’s entry and exit from the school premises. DEPLOYING BIOMETRICS IN SCHOOL ATTENDANCE SYSTEM Deploying biometric identification solutions in a school environment can provide immense benefits in terms of convenience, safety and Bayometric sales@bayometric.com 1743 Park Avenue t. 877.917.3287 (USA) San Jose, CA, 95126 t. 408.940.3955 (INT)

6. BIOMETRICS IN EDUCATION Attendance systems using fingerprint recognition do not require complex technical knowledge and individuals can start using the system with minimum training. They simply need to place their fingers on the scanner to check-in or check-out of the school building or the class. The process of attendance tracking becomes faster and student’s identity and privacy is also protected with the use of biometric attendance systems. numbers or ID cards leading to longer waiting times in the school lunch line leaving both the staff and the students frustrated. Some students are also entitled to a free or a reduced price meal which is provided anonymously. So a student who forgets his card might feel somewhat embarrassed. In the worst case, bullies might steal the PIN number or swipe card and use it fraudulently to pay for their meals. Thus we see that a school lunch line POS technology should be able to address a lot of areas. It should be able to provide quick and accurate check-outs to students and also be able to interface with back end accounting and inventory systems. The federal and state government provides certain funding based on the number of students who attend school each day. Thus the administrators should be able to provide auditable attendance records. Failure to do so may prove very expensive to the school. Any errors in attendance reporting will require the school to return the thousands of dollars paid as funding by the government sources. With biometric based attendance systems, administrators will be able to provide irrefutable proof of student attendance. Students who are not in appropriate classrooms can also be identified in real-time using the period-by- period attendance records. Moreover, teachers of large classes such as physical education or orchestra class will be able to utilise the entire classroom period for instruction rather than spending valuable time taking attendance. This will result in increased productivity. Deploying fingerprint biometric technology in lunch line POS systems will allow quick transactions and smooth lunch line flow while at the same time ensuring student accountability and security. A lunch line POS system based on fingerprint biometrics will eliminate the need for students to remember their PIN number or ID card when they get to the register. In biometric POS systems, the student simply places his finger on the scanner for identity verification. The process is completed in less than few seconds and the transaction gets recorded. It is a quick, reliable and accurate process which allows maintaining the smooth flow in lunch line. Students who sometimes get 20 minutes or less for their lunch period can quickly get in and out of the lunch line. DEPLOYING BIOMETRICS FOR SCHOOL LUNCH LINE Earlier most schools used a PIN pad entry or swipe cards in their cafeteria debit systems but soon realised the problems associated with these systems. Often, students forget their PIN More schools are looking to adopt affordable biometric technology in their cafeteria management systems. Biometric technology Bayometric sales@bayometric.com 1743 Park Avenue t. 877.917.3287 (USA) San Jose, CA, 95126 t. 408.940.3955 (INT)

7. BIOMETRICS IN EDUCATION eliminates wasted time and expenses by boosting the accuracy and security of lunch line POS transactions. Fingerprint recognition is the mainstream biometric technology for lunch line POS systems due to its inherent benefits and cost effectiveness. It can also be easily interfaced with existing cafeteria management software and is a modern technology compared to PINs and swipe cards. School administration has the assurance that the students are safe and moving quickly through the lunch line. BENEFITS OF IMPLEMENTING BIOMETRIC TECHNOLOGY There are numerous benefits of implementing biometrics in school management systems which include the following: With biometrics technology, school administration can centrally and accurately track student attendance records and prevent proxy attendance and other errors of traditional student attendance tracking systems. It saves the time spent in recording class attendance and rectifying attendance errors and now teachers can use this saved time for teaching which increases productivity. INTEGRATING FINGERPRINT RECOGNITION TECHNOLOGY IN SCHOOL SOFTWARE SYSTEMS Schools looking to integrate fingerprint recognition technology in their existing student attendance system or cafeteria management software can take advantage of Touch n Go. It is a developer friendly biometric solution that allows fingerprint technology to be integrated into existing applications instantly and with no learning curve. It is a very fast and convenient system as biometric attendance systems can scan fingerprints in mere seconds thus allowing students to check-in and check-out easily. Biometric systems can also speed up the data verification time thus saving administration time and increasing efficiency. Touch n Go provides the highest level of security and a solid identity management infrastructure for your applications. With Touch n Go, fingerprint technology integration should not take hours or months but can be accomplished with just four lines of code. The client and server installation takes just a few minutes and the GUI for performing enrollment and search is ready to use. Programmers will also find it helpful as Touch n Go supports various programming languages such as C#, Java etc. CONCLUSION We have seen how biometric identification solutions can help streamline the operations of school management systems and increase efficiency. The main benefits of implementing biometrics in education are accurate record keeping, increased productivity, convenience and also safety and security of the students. Bayometric sales@bayometric.com 1743 Park Avenue t. 877.917.3287 (USA) San Jose, CA, 95126 t. 408.940.3955 (INT)

8. BIOMETRICS IN EDUCATION AUTHOR DANNY THAKKAR CEO & Co-Founder Danny Thakkar is the CEO and Co-Founder of Bayometric, one of the leading biometric solution providers in the world. He has been in the Biometric Industry for 10+ years and has extensive experience across public and private sector verticals. Currently, he is chief evangelist for Touch N Go. Bayometric sales@bayometric.com 1743 Park Avenue t. 877.917.3287 (USA) San Jose, CA, 95126 t. 408.940.3955 (INT)

9. COPYRIGHT Copyright © 2017 Bayometric LLC. All rights reserved. This white paper was written, designed, and created by Bayometric. Information contained in this whitepaper is the copyright of Bayometric. This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it or assist in its implementation may be prepared, copied, published, and distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any kind, provided that the above copyright notice and this section are included on all such copies and derivative works. However, this document itself may not be modified in any way, including by removing the copyright notice or references to Bayometric LLC, without the permission of the copyright owners. This document and the information contained herein is provided on an "AS IS" basis and Bayometric LLC disclaims all warranties, express or implied, including but not limited to any warranty that the use of the information herein will not infringe any ownership rights or any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. REFERENCES 1. Biometrics in schools – Wikipedia 2. Biometrics Market in the United States in Education Sector 2015-2019 – Technavio 3. Kids to Scan Fingers for School Lunches – FINDBIOMETRICS 4. Biometrics in Education – A Growing Demand – IriTech Blog 5. Fingerprint SDK vs. Touch N Go Fingerprint Software – Touch N Go Blog 6. The Value of Biometrics for Student Attendance Management Systems – M2SYS Blog