FR2752976A1 - ACCESS CONTROL EQUIPMENT AND ACCESS BADGE FOR THIS EQUIPMENT - Google Patents

Abstract

The badge (2) comprises a memory (8) for storing a particular physical characteristic of the wearer and the radio means (4) connected to the memory (8). The equipment comprises radio means (11, 111) for reading from the badge memory (8), means (15, 16) for identifying the particular physical characteristic considered of the holder of the badge, a comparator (17) connected at the input to the radio means (11, 111) and to the identification means (15, 16) and, at the output, to means (20) for locking the access.

Description

a '2752976 Access control equipment and access badge for this

  equipment Access control to a protected area is conventionally carried out by equipment comprising a badge reader, which controls the unlocking of the access door that the reader controls. The badge is an electronic key containing access authorization information, which makes it possible in particular to identify its holder in order to allow him access to certain zones and to refuse it to him for others, according to the information stored. in the player, or in a central database. So the badge is identified and it's

  io possession which allows access authorization to be obtained.

  In order to protect against the theft of a badge, and to verify that its holder and its bearer are one, there is often a keyboard for entering a code word, or Personal Identification Number (PIN, according to English terminology)

  that the wearer must provide to the equipment, to identify himself.

  There are also equipments in which the identification of the bearer of

  badge is made by recognition of his fingerprints.

  In all the systems indicated above, the wearer must make two entries: he must manually enter his badge to insert it into the reader and he must carry out the electronic entry of the code word or his fingerprints. The comfort of use, or the user-friendliness, of such a dual-operation system leaves something to be desired since the holder of the badge cannot then if necessary need to simultaneously push the controlled door. In addition, the time required for handling

  above limits the flow rate.

  To improve user-friendliness, it is known to provide contactless passage by means of a badge comprising a radio transmitter associated with a smart card containing access authorization information and interrogated remotely by

  the reader, which frees the hand which was necessary for the presentation of the badge.

  However, the smart card generally does not include the holder's identification information (PIN). But if it contains it, the entry time of it obers, as indicated above, the rate of passage and again the user-friendliness, which incites the operator to deactivate this additional security

what constitutes the PIN code word.

  In addition, radio transmissions between the badge and the reader have the disadvantage of risking being picked up by a third party, who is thus able to

  reproduce, in a badge in its possession, the information transmitted, i.e.

  say the access authorizations but also, very often, the PIN code word. The double security of the badge reader and the keyboard

  entering the PIN code word is then faulty.

  The invention aims to provide access control equipment which is at the

both user-friendly and safe.

  To this end, the invention firstly relates to equipment for controlling access to a protected area of a badge holder, the badge comprising - memory means for storing a particular physical characteristic of the bearer, - radio means connected to the memory means, the equipment comprising - radio means, arranged to read in the memory means of the badge, - means of identifying the particular physical characteristic considered of the bearer of the badge, means of comparison connected as input to radio means and means

  identification and, at the exit to access locking means.

  The plaintiff went against the idea which had prevailed until then, according to which a radio transmission would reduce the level of security of access control. A more in-depth analysis of the problem made him discover that it was necessary to take into account the fact that the particular physical characteristics of the wearer differ fundamentally from conventional data. The latter have value only by their content, regardless of their medium, and can therefore be copied to another similar medium and be directly used for fraudulent purposes. On the other hand, and even if the information defined by the physical characteristics of a person can be copied once they have been transformed into computer, digital data, it is impossible to reconstruct them in their original analog form since they are an integral part of the person. As a characteristic of the person, other than fingerprints, one can think of the image of the retina or the

genetic code.

  As a result, it then appeared to the applicant that it was perfectly possible to tolerate a reduction in the level of security at the level of reading the badge by radio, since the entry of the physical characteristics directly on the

  carrier alone maintained a high standard.

  The access control then presents a good user-friendliness and allows a fast passage, especially as the only operation to be carried out by the holder of the badge

  is to present yourself to the means of identification, without having to enter a code word.

  In short, the holder of the badge somehow provides the attribute of his own person. The invention also relates to a badge for controlling access to a protected area, for the access control equipment of the invention, comprising radio means controlled by memory means arranged to transmit the control equipment from 'access, identification data,

  representative of a physical characteristic specific to a badge holder.

  The invention will be better understood using the following description of the

  preferred embodiment of the equipment of the invention and of the associated badge,

  with reference to the single figure which represents them diagrammatically.

  The equipment of the invention, bearing the reference 1, comprises two access control data entry channels. On the one hand, it is designed to cooperate with a badge 2 for providing access authorization data, indicating a right of passage to controlled access. On the other hand, the equipment 1 can enter here the fingerprints of the holder of the badge 2. The constitution of the badge 2 and that of

  equipment 1 will be specified below.

  The badge 2 comprises a box 3 comprising a radio transmitter circuit 4, associated with a standby radio receiver circuit 41, arranged to wake up, among other things, the transmitter 4 when the badge 2 enters the radio coverage area of

  equipment 1, indicated below.

  The box 3 here comprises a connector, not shown, for receiving a smart card 5 carrying a microprocessor 6 for managing the circuits of the card 5, in particular a memory 7 containing the access authorization data. In this example, there is provided a memory 8 of data representing the image of the imprint of a determined finger of the holder of the badge 2 and a scrambling circuit 9 supplied with data by the memories 7 and 8 for controlling the radio transmitter 4 through the above connector. The wake-up circuit 41 also controls the wake-up of circuits 6 to 9, which, moreover, are produced in a low-consumption technology, avoiding an accelerated discharge of the battery, not shown, locally supplying circuits 4 and 41 and the card. 5. An achievement

  integrated of a box comprising all the circuits above would not be excluded.

  The equipment 1 comprises, on the first input channel, a radio receiver 11, associated with a wake-up transmitter 111, determining the radio coverage indicated above, controlling the wake-up circuit 41. The receiver 11 is connected at the output to a working memory 12 for temporary storage of the data read in the memories 7 and 8, comprising at the input a descrambling circuit complementary to the circuit 9. A first output of the memory 12 addresses, by the data access authorization read in memory 7, a database memory logic 13 providing in response a binary access authorization signal, applied to an AND logic gate 19 with two inputs controlling an electromagnet 20 of locking / unlocking of a gate 21 for controlling access to a protected area. The memory 13 is equivalent to a comparator comparing the data read in the badge 2 with local homologous authorization data linked to the equipment 1 and determining the attributes or criteria which the holder of the badge 2 must have in order for it to be authorized. to cross the

gate 21.

  On a second channel, the equipment 1 comprises a reader 15 for capturing images of a part of the wearer's body, here the image of a skin area and more precisely in this case fingerprints. The reader 15, of the scanner type, is connected at the output to an image processing circuit 16 which extracts from the image, captured by the reader 15, the positions of the characteristic points of the imprints, in order to reduce the required memory volume. A footprint image is thus characterized by the relative positions, or topology, of these points,

  each representing for example the intersections between grooves of the imprint.

  A comparator 17 receives the image data determined by the circuit 16 and those corresponding from the memory 12, representing the data from the memory 8 of the badge 2, and, in the event of a match, it provides an identification signal of the wearer of the badge 2, applied to the second entry of the AND gate 19, indicating that it is effectively the holder of the badge 2. When the AND gate 19 detects the simultaneous presence of the two signals, access authorization and identification, it controls the electromagnet 20 for

unlock the gate 21.

  The access authorizations can indicate one or more attributes of the holder of the badge 2, for example the category of personnel, or the hierarchical level, and the memory 13 authorizes or not the access as a function of this or these attributes. Another similar device, controlling another access route to another area, may have been initialized (writing memory 13) to provide a different response, according to criteria justifying access to this other area by certain categories of personnel with a defined attribute. The memory 13 is thus equivalent to a

  logic to access decision tables addressed by criteria or attributes.

  The operation of the equipment 1 and of the badge 2 will now be

explained in more detail.

  When the holder of the badge 2 approaches the equipment 1 and enters its radio coverage area, the transmitter 111 awakens, by the receiver 41, the circuits of the badge 2 which had been put in the rest state, at reduced consumption or even interrupted. by circuit 41, then not controlled. The microprocessor 20, awakened, then controls the radio transmission of the content of memories 7 and 8, under

tangled shape (9).

  The memory 12 stores this data after having unscrambled it and it is processed as already explained. It could have been expected that

  descrambling is performed at circuits 13 and 17 using them.

  At the same time, the wearer of the badge 2 must affix the concerned finger to the scanner 15 to supply the processing circuit 16. The constellation of the positions of the characteristic points, which was similarly previously entered in a step of commissioning the badge 2 by loading its memory 8 in particular, is then compared (17) to that defined by the reference data read from memory 8. By way of example, it can be indicated that this comparison can be carried out by processing of the signal equivalent to a translation and a rotation until the positions are perfectly superimposed (or a large percentage of these in an area of the image). We can also consider a determination of the level of correlation between images by comparison of attributes thereof, for example by determination of a spectrum of distances between characteristic points of the image and by comparison with a homologous spectrum of

reference (8).

  In other examples, it may be the image of the retina of the carrier

badge that is seized.

  Likewise, the authorization data could still be presented in a directly explicit form, and no longer in the form of attributes to be interpreted by the reader, that is to say in the form of a list of zones, or of individualized gates, access to which is authorized to the holder of the badge 2. In this case, the badge 2 would only transmit this authorization to gate 19, the circuit 13 then being almost transparent, that is to say that the data of authorization of badge 2 would be validated, that is to say would order door 19, by their content alone. For protection, however, this validation may require that the authorization data read from the badge have a predetermined electronic key format, the secret of which is here protected by scrambling. The circuit 13 would then check only the agreement between the identity of the equipment 2, stored therein, and one of the identities of a list of similar equipment, with authorized access, list present in the data of authorization read in badge 2 and necessary in the event that the gates cannot be trivialized, due to the existence of several protected areas accessible to groups of people

at least partially different.

  Except for the interface means 11, 111 and 15, it will be understood that the rest of the circuits of the equipment 1 can be remote, for example in a computer

  in a central site, common to a plurality of such equipment 1.

Claims (9)

  1. Equipment for controlling access to a protected area of a badge holder (2), the badge (2) comprising - memory means (8) for storing a particular physical characteristic of the holder, - radio means (4) connected to the memory means (8), the equipment comprising radio means (11, 111), arranged to read in the memory means (8) of the badge, - means (15, 16) d identification of the particular physical characteristic considered of the badge holder, - comparison means (17) connected at the input to the radio means (11, 111) and to the identification means (15, 16) and, at the output, to   - Means (20) for locking the access.   2. Equipment according to claim 1, in which, the badge (2) comprising means (7) for storing access authorization data, means (12, 13) for validating authorization data are provided of the badge and linked to   the input of said locking means (20).   3 Equipment according to claim 2, wherein, the badge (2) being arranged to transmit the authorization data in scrambled form, the means   validation (12) are arranged to unravel them.   4. Equipment according to claim 3, wherein the validation means (13)   are arranged to validate the authorization data from their content alone.   5. Equipment according to one of claims 2 to 4, wherein the means of   validation (13) include comparator means arranged to compare the authorization data read with homologous data stored in a database equipment data.   6. Equipment according to one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the means   identification (15, 16) are arranged to capture the image of the badge holder's retina.   7. Equipment according to one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the means   identification (15, 16) are arranged to capture the image of an imprint of the wearer's skin.   1o 8. Equipment according to claim 7, in which the identification means   (15, 16) are arranged to capture the image of a fingerprint.   9. Access control badge (2) to a protected area for the equipment of one   of claims there 8, comprising radio means (4) controlled by   storage means (8) arranged to transmit, to an access control equipment, identification data, representative of a   physical characteristic specific to a badge holder (2).