Subscriber Discussion

Fingerprint Enrollment Best Practices

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Greg Rhoades
Oct 20, 2016
IPVMU Certified

About to be rolling out a series of fingerprint scanners, the client does not want prox cards or PINs to be used.  Should we use multiple fingerprints as a backup in case of scarring, swelling, or injury?

 

Also- Is it best practice to use multiple areas of a fingerprint under different fingerprints? Example, my thumb is larger than the fingerprint enrollment scanner, I can get 2, maybe even 3 "different" prints from using the end near my knuckle, or top half of my thumb near the tip, enroll those two sides under the same user? Or just try to use the main central area of multiple fingers.

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Brian Rhodes
Oct 20, 2016
IPVMU Certified

This is an interesting topic for sure.

In general, yes to enrolling multiple fingers from multiple hands. Arms may get casted/broken leaving only the non-dominant arm/hand/fingers free to read.

In terms of which areas of a print to scan - most reader manufacturers will instruct users to enroll whichever point of the print makes repeatable and comfortable contact with the sensor. Higher-end sensors may expand the readable area of a finger by rolling it across boundary areas, or retouching the sensor multiple times in multiple positions.

However, this is dependent on the sensor manufacturer and reader model. Generally the unit will include some guidelines for best-enrollment practices, and that's worth heeding.

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Dan Droker
Oct 20, 2016
LONG Building Technologies • IPVMU Certified

Also, it is really important to take the time to get good enrollment prints. Users are often busy and in a hurry to get back to their desks, but taking the time to do a good enrollment, assess the captured images, and re-print if necessary, sometimes multiple times, will make for a better end-user experience when it comes to getting the doors to open.

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Baudouin Genouville
Oct 24, 2016
SUPREMA

Dan, I couldn't have said it better. A good enrollment is they key. So check the enrollment score

My favorite scenario is to enroll 4x fingers:

- 2x from the left hand (Thumb + best between Index finger and Middle finger)

- 2x from the right hand (same as above)

In case you save these fingerprint in the fingerprint reader internal memory then it gives you indication about the total capacity of users that you can reach.

For example, if using:

- Old generation fingerprint readers (5,000 fingerprint capable) => 1,250 users max in 1:N

- New generation fingerprint readers (100,000 fingerprint capable) => 25,000 users max in 1:N

In some case you may have to enroll only 2 fingerprints (because of HW limitation). In that case, think about the position of the fingerprint reader on the door/turnstile (is it on the left or on the right of the users?)

Also most fingerprint vendors have the possibility to enroll Duress fingers. The duress finger will open the door but it will send an alert to the Security Monitoring Room (in case someone force an employee to open the door). Duress often uses proprietary format (it cannot be sent via wiegand, so you will have to SQL DB sync events), but soon it shall be available via OSDP thanks to SIA efforts (in next OSDP v2.17?)

How to enroll a fingerprint (guide) =>

http://kb.supremainc.com/knowledge/doku.php?id=en:1xfaq_how_to_enroll_a_fingerprint

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Paul Boucherle CPP CSC
Oct 24, 2016

Definitely both hands to allow for injuries. Some manufactures allow for enrollment of a specific finger for silent duress read/alert in their software. I would caution against registering all fingers as this is typically overkill and larger template search slowing down throughput.

Here is a link for best practices that provides good enrollment and usage guideline on the PSA site.

http://www.psasecurity.com/education/product-trainings/zkaccess/

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John Bredehoft
Oct 24, 2016
Bredemarket / Incode Technologies

I am *NOT* a forensic expert, but Apple is about the only vendor that I've seen that actually encourages taking prints from different areas of the finger - perhaps because of the specific use case for mobile phones in which someone may *PLACE* a finger in a variety of different positions/directions. A stationary fingerprint reader with guides is a bit different.

And don't capture the pinkies - too small.

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