An American university is planning to use biometric authentication to grant students access to its dining hall. Virginia Commonwealth University has announced that, starting this fall, students will have the option of entering Shafer Court Dining Center via iris scan.

While the system is largely being touted as a fast and efficient means of granting students access to the dining hall, it also has other important practical benefits, the most notable being that students will always have a means of access. Previously, students who misplaced their ID cards – the previous means of entry (and still an option going forward) – over the weekend wouldn’t be able to access the dining hall, since there would be no means of getting the card replaced until the return of administrative staff during the week. That problem will effectively be eliminated by the new system.

It’s going to rely on Iris ID’s iCAM7100 iris cameras, provided through its partner ColorID, and school officials say that the system will encrypt iris biometric data into an a secure algorithm. Stations will be set up for enrolment during the first couple of weeks of the new semester, and students will always the option of sticking with their traditional ID cards if they prefer.

This actually isn’t the first cafeteria deployment for biometric technology; earlier this year, a fingerprint scanning system was announced for a number K-12 school districts in the US. Biometric system deployments in schools have tended to be more of the security variety, but we’re also increasingly seeing alternative applications that simply aim to take advantage of the efficiency and convenience provided by the technology; while elsewhere in the world, biometric attendance tracking systems are being implemented for students and teachers alike.

Source: VCU News

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August 4, 2015 – by Alex Perala