Ready-made biometric solution Id-Guard

Id-Guard is a ready-made biometric product designed for video surveillance systems, which allows you to enrich the functionality of classic VMS with the identification of faces in the video stream. The key advantage of the product is simple and fast installation. Installation of a boxed solution takes no more than 20 minutes. It is not necessary to have any specialized knowledge and skills at the same time: it is enough to follow the instructions described step by step in the administration instructions. The introduction of facial recognition is possible using the infrastructure already available at the facility, and the availability of ready-made plugins with popular VMS allows you to increase efficiency and simplify the work of the security service. To access biometric functions, you can continue working in the already familiar interface. There is no need to retrain or install new programs.

Id-Guard works on the basis of modern high-precision facial recognition technology. The software solution analyzes the video stream from surveillance cameras in real time, detecting and identifying the faces of employees and visitors. If an unregistered person or a person from the stop list is detected, the system notifies the security staff about it in real time. Various channels are used to send notifications: the interface of the VMS itself, email newsletters, SMS messages. At the request of the customer, you can use a special mobile application Id-Guard based on Android.

An important task of the software solution is to increase the effectiveness of the investigation of security incidents. To do this, Id-Guard has a search function for the biometric archive. When investigating incidents “in hot pursuit”, it is convenient to use the online search option. Data on the movements of persons on the territory of the object can be ranked by date, time and observation zone. Both the image of the person of interest and his verbal portrait are suitable for the search. For example, details of appearance or clothing: a description of the hairstyle, the presence of a beard, glasses, etc. You can also track the trajectory of the person of interest moving around the object.

To investigate incidents that have occurred in the past, the software solution provides a long-term archive of biometric data. The archive search takes less than 10 seconds, which is enough time to find the person of interest in 10 million records of passages: just upload a photo to the system. Another important detail is that the biometric archive takes up ten times less memory than a regular video archive. So, to store one event in the archive, no more than 20 KB of memory is required, and 50 million identification facts fit in 1 TB. Instead of watching the video archive for hours, you can upload images of people of interest and get information about the date and place of their discovery, which allows you to effectively investigate incidents and save security resources.

Project implementation and solution selection

The project was implemented for the Schneider Electric office in Costa Rica. In this country, facial recognition is still a fairly new technology. Nevertheless, interest in facial biometrics in Costa Rica is growing, including from the business sector.

Schneider Electric is one of the world’s leading developers and suppliers of ready–made and reliable solutions for the industrial and energy complex, manufacturing, residential buildings, civil engineering facilities, data centers. One of the ready-made boxed Id-Gate products is already integrated with the Schneider Electric EcoStruxure Security Expert ACS. However, in this case, the division of the corporation acted not as a vendor of equipment and software, but as an end customer. The work on the project was carried out jointly with the integrator company Domotica.

Schneider Electric’s office is located in San Jose, the capital and largest city of Costa Rica. There are several dozen people on the staff of the unit. To improve the physical security of the office, the branch management decided to introduce facial recognition technology into the video surveillance system. In addition to the reliability of the biometric algorithm, two main requirements were put forward for the implementation of the project. The first is the possibility of recognizing faces in masks, and monitoring compliance with the mask regime, since strict epidemic security measures have been in effect in the country for a long time. The second is the availability of a ready–made integration module with the Pelco VideoXpert VMS system installed at the facility. The biometric Id-Guard software solution based on face recognition technology from RecFaces fully satisfied all the wishes of the customer.

At the initial stage of the project implementation, the integrator faced a number of difficulties. It turned out that the surveillance cameras chosen by the integrator and their location on the object did not fully meet the conditions for the correct operation of the facial recognition system. In particular, the object of detection was in front of the cameras behind double glass. The first was part of the architectural solution of the reception area, the second was placed temporarily – as part of countering the spread of coronavirus infection. The design features led to a decrease in the image quality from the cameras, which negatively affected the accuracy of face detection. To correct the shortcomings and implement high-quality and efficient operation of the Id-Guard solution, the integrator turned to the RecFaces team for help. After consulting with the vendor, the model and location of the video cameras were changed at the facility, and additional glass was removed. Thanks to the measures taken, the software solution began to function normally and the detection rate was 100%.

Additional benefits

Id-Guard can be used as a simple and accurate tool for monitoring compliance with the regulations on the use of medical masks by employees and visitors. During the pandemic, a fairly strict mask regime was introduced in Costa Rica. Taking into account the rules established in the country, the above control function has become one of the priorities for the customer when choosing a software solution. Id-Guard uses a highly accurate facial recognition algorithm that allows you to identify people even in masks. To track violations in Id-Guard, you can set up a policy of automatic notifications on the presence or absence of masks on faces.

All RecFaces biometric solutions receive regular updates and expansion of functional and technical capabilities. This makes the work of users even more convenient and efficient. In addition, the system scales easily. At the request of the customer, new cameras can be connected to biometric identification within the existing VMS.

Project results

The project was implemented in record time. It took only two months from the signing of the agreement between the vendor and the integrator to the installation of the system at the facility. Id-Guard in the Costa Rican office of Schneider Electric was launched in March 2022. After eliminating the shortcomings in the system design, the solution shows excellent results: the face recognition solution works smoothly. The introduction of biometric identification into the video surveillance system has made it possible to increase the level of security at the facility, speed up the response to incidents and introduce an effective system for their investigation.

In addition to working with feedback from the end customer, RecFaces continues to strengthen partnerships with the integrator. Domotica specialists have completed a free training course offered by the vendor. Now the company is considering the possibility of further cooperation with RecFaces and joint work on other projects in Central America. In the future, the integrator also plans to open its own competence center for biometric products in Costa Rica.