At UMR’s nuclear reactor, faculty and staff are using their faces instead of keys to gain access to secured areas. The face-recognition technology being used at the UMR reactor is an evaluation in security that could help aid the nation’s security concerns, says Dr. Akira Tokuhiro, assistant professor of nuclear engineering and director of the nuclear reactor.

UMR student Craig Heimericks uses the new Face Key to enter the UMR Reactor

Omron Transaction Systems Inc. in Schaumburg, Ill., has granted UMR a six-month trial of its Face Identification Access Control System, or Face Key. The UMR campus is the first in the United States to test Omron’s Face Key technology. The installation for the Face Key unit was performed by Norment Security Group from Montgomery, Ala. Omron and Norment have joined forces to bring Face Key to the industry.

"This technology is a way to fingerprint your face," says Tokuhiro. "It can even tell the difference between a set of identical twins’ facial features."

During this trial, UMR will perform a variety of tests and report the results to Omron, Tokuhiro says. The results of this trial will influence Omron’s current efforts to market the Face Key in the United States.

The Face Key stores and calculates an individual’s facial information and monitors how many times a door has been accessed, when and by whom. The Face Key recognizes a face based on four pictures of an individual stored in its database. Then a button on the access unit is pressed while the individual is standing directly in front of the unit, and a camera quickly scans the person’s face. If the control unit recognizes the person’s face, the door is unlocked. If the person is not recognized, the door remains locked and the unit can be programmed to alert authorities of a breach in security. A card reader, iris scan, keypad and fingerprint scanner could be used in addition to the Face Key. This combination of technology would make it difficult for an unregistered person to pass into a restricted area, says Tokuhiro.

Tokuhiro will report his findings and give recommendations about the Face Key at the annual Test Research and Training Reactor Conference, Nov. 11-15 in Salt Lake City, Utah.

In addition to nuclear reactor security, it could be used to control access to bank vaults, prisons, university residence halls and prescribed medication dispensers, Tokuhiro says.

Omron Transaction Systems Inc. is a U.S. subsidiary of Omron Corp. in Japan that offers a wide variety of products and services such as automatic fare collection systems at airports and stations, automatic teller machines, retail automation machines, traffic control systems, electronic money products and face recognition security. Headquartered in Kyoto, Japan, Omron Corp. is a global leader in the field of automation.