Biometric systems to help track vaccination records in developing countries
Biometric systems are typically used for restricting access to sensitive, high security areas, but their actual range of uses can extend much further, as researchers from Michigan State University have recently proven.
The team of scientists managed to develop a fingerprint-scanning system for children under five years old that could replace ineffective paper vaccination records in developing countries around the world, a news report on the matter was able to reveal.
Until now, experts in the field of biometrics believed fingerprints of babies and toddlers were too unreliable because image sensors are designed for the ridges and valleys of adult fingertips. Nevertheless, researchers developed software that makes it feasible to accurately match fingerprints of children under five with off-the-shelf equipment.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation funded the research specifically for recording vaccinations, but the patient-identifying system has broader applications, says Anil Jain, a distinguished professor at Michigan State University’s Computer Science and Engineering Department and coauthor of the paper.
The technology could be used “in any health-care scenario where you have the potential for fraud, such as insurance fraud,” says Jain.
Recording fingerprints from infancy into early childhood and adulthood would also allow countries to link civil registries, such as birth and death certificates to health care records, school enrollments, and voter registration.
Access Control UK employs a variety of access control technologies (including biometrics) in order to create advanced solutions, enable users to exert solid, reliable and accurate control over the access to specific premises or zones.
If you’d like to find out more about the range of solutions supplied by Access Control UK, both in terms of hardware (smart card readers, biometric readers, turnstiles, etc.) and software (access rights management software solutions, etc.), just contact us, we’ll be more than happy to answer any queries you might have.