Biometric Hand Punch
There has always been an attempt of making human recognition as precise as possible. In earlier days we had crude roll calls and then we had the employee musters. But these were totally unreliable to say the least. Then the development of the electronic world took place and more precise methods came into being. Now, biometrics is the name of the game. Biometrics is a byproduct of evolving electronics. It is a recognition technology where the identifying characteristics are human body traits. There are several traits that can be used for human biometric recognition, right from the fingerprint to the DNA, but in the employee world, the most common and the most convenient trait to use is the hand.
This is the concept of the biometric hand punch. The hand punch is a three-dimensional recognition device that uses as many as ninety distinguishing features to recognize patterns. When a person registers their hand for the first time on the device by placing it on the reader area, the device will measure these parameters and come up with a unique template for the person's hand. This template is then stored in the memory of the device. The template is used for identifying the person the next time.
Earlier, there was skepticism whether such a device would work all the time. But today, the biometric hand punch from companies such as Amano has become quite sophisticated. These hand punches can recognize hand patterns even if the hand is greasy or wet. The sensitivity has definitely improved and so has the utility. By using software, companies are allowing all their hand punch machines to be networked together. In that manner, if a particular employee has been transferred from one department to another the hand print will still remain recognizable by the other machine in the other department. There is no need to enroll oneself on the machine again.
Biometric hand punches are used in a large way as time and attendance devices. The recognition technology has now been incorporated with clocking so that these machines can be used to record employee time. When an employee punches their hand on the reader area, not only are they recognized by the machine, but their time is also clocked in. This time is then fed to the associated software. The employee has to do the same procedure when moving out of the workplace. Here, the checkout time is registered and fed to the software. The software thus keeps track of how many hours each individual employee has spent at the company. It helps the company to know about their contribution precisely and make perfect payrolls for them. These machines are definitely important for security purposes also. It is impossible that the device will allow anyone without authorization (as identified by the hand template) to enter. Today, the wireless biometric hand punch has become quite popular in workplaces that use them for their convenience, efficiency and accuracy. They are considered to be valuable assets to workplaces both by the employers who are guided by their clocking information and security methods and by the employees for the swipe card-free convenience they provide.
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