MX2014011089A - Method and system of automated access control. - Google Patents

Abstract

Described is a system and method for controlling, monitoring and managing the access to restricted access environments where it is important to forbid the access of unauthorized people to resources arranged in the domains of these environments. In such a manner, the present invention provides an automated access control method, where the access control of an environment (10) is applied from a control area (14) adjacent the same, comprising the stages of (i) delimiting the control area (14) including a control perimeter (15) around the same using at least a sensor (16), all the possible physical accesses to this environment must have a control area; (ii) recognizing at least an individual in at least one of the control areas (14) by at least one recognition means (18); and (iii) authorizing said at least one individual to access the environment (10) through at least an access band (15) of the control perimeter (15) of the control area (14), in case no violation of the control perimeter (15) has been detected during the execution of the method and in case at least one recognized individual has authorization for accessing the environment (10).

Description

METHOD AND ACCESS CONTROL SYSTEM AUTOMATED Cam of the Invention The present invention is related to a system and a method of control, monitoring and management of access to restricted access environments where there is interest in preventing the access of unauthorized persons to resources arranged in the domains of these environments. Examples are mentioned: chests, rooms containing chests, computers, service stations, etc.

Background of the I nvention Access control systems are widely used for the management and security of different environments, guaranteeing permission only to authorized persons. There are several ways to perform this control: • Human action such as, for example, receptionists and security agents who can be physically on the premises or remotely communicating through devices such as intercoms and cameras; • Mechanical systems, with the use of locks, bars, keys and physical barriers, such as windlasses; • Other technological means such as systems based on access cards, electronic passwords random and biometrics.

To allow access only to authorized persons, several current systems are based on the concepts of identification and authentication. In this format, the person identifies himself for the system and uses some means to confirm that he is the informed person. The examples below show some known forms of identification and authentication: In the case of biometrics, it can serve as both identification and authentication.

Various forms of control can be combined to achieve more efficient systems. Systems based integrally or partially on human action will always be subject to human failure, coming from a simple misunderstanding or even an active action by the security agent or receptionist with the intention of circumventing the system. Purely mechanical systems are not capable of guaranteeing a person's identity. For example, there is no way to certify who is in possession of the key or who is going through the windlass. For this reason, mechanical systems often demand human supervision.

Many systems use sensors to automatically perform that control. However, no known system proves to be completely effective.

Additionally, a large part of the current systems used are mechanical keys, electronic passwords, biometrics and remote monitoring performed by a human being. There is no way to guarantee the identity of the person who owns the mechanical key or the electronic password, nor is there any guarantee that the person identifies biometrically is not accompanied.

It is also known to use high precision sensors for the identification and / or counting of people and objects in a certain environment. US201 31 36307 (A 1), for example, is related to a method for counting objects that uses an image sensor and a depth sensor, and comprises the steps of (i) acquiring an image to be split. of the image sensor and the acquisition of a profority map from the sensor of depth, indicating detailed information about the objects in the image; (ii) acquisition of information about border objects in the image by applying the limit information in the profusion map to generate a corrected depth map; and (iii) identify the profusion pattern of the objects from the corrected depth map and counting the identified objects.

In this way, despite understanding a system capable of counting objects and / or people through the use of at least one depth sensor, the technique described in document US201 31 36307 (A 1) does not controls access to a certain environment adjacent to the area of interest. Such a technique comprises only counting the number of people and / or objects in a certain delimited area.

Thus, none of the current techniques guarantees that an authorized person is the person who accessed the environment and that the authorized person did not enter accompanied by unauthorized persons. Thus, current systems can allow unauthorized persons to have access to restricted content.

Brief description of the I nvention The objective of the present invention is to provide a system and a method of automatic control of access to Restricted environments, in which only access to the contents of those environments is allowed to authorized individuals, duly identified, and unaccompanied by unauthorized individuals.

In order to achieve the objectives described above, the present invention provides an automated access control method, control being applied to the access of an environment from a control area adjacent to it, comprising the steps of (i) delimiting the area of control comprising a control perimeter around it through at least one first sensor, (ii) recognizing at least one individual in the at least one control area, all of which being possible physical accesses To this environment they must have a control area, through at least one recognition meter and (iii) authorize the at least one individual to access the environment through at least one perimeter access zone. Control of the area of control, in case there is no violation of the control perimeter during the execution of the method and in case the at least one recognized individual has authorization to access the environment.

The present invention also provides an automated access control system, applying control applied to the access of an environment to a control area adjacent to it, comprising (i) a means sensor to delimit the control area comprising a control perimeter around it, (ii) a means to recognize at least one individual in the at least one control area and (iii) a means to authorize that the at least one individual accesses the environment through at least one access strip of the control area perimeter of the control area, in case there is no violation of the control perimeter during the execution of the procedure and in the event that the unless a recognized individual has authorization to access the environment.

Brief Description of the Figures The detailed description presented below refers to the attached figures, in which: - Figure 1 illustrates a possible application of the system of the present invention; - Figure 2 illustrates a flow diagram of the method of the present invention according to a preferred embodiment; - Figure 3 illustrates an individual monitored by a sensor that can be used in the system of the present invention.

Detailed description of the invention The description that follows will start from a preferred embodiment of the invention. As will be apparent to any practitioner in the art, however, the invention is not is limited to this particular embodiment r.

The present invention ensures that only authorized individuals access and are present in a certain restricted environment, through the automatic control of access to the environment. In other words, the present invention provides a system that allows only authorized individuals to be able to access a certain environment and / or have access to a restricted resource within it. In this way, the system controls which individual has access to the environment and the number of individuals who have access to the environment, without necessarily having control of the environment itself. If the goal is to control only access to a restricted reservoir in the interior of the environment, for example, control of access to the environment by physical barriers becomes optional.

Examples of restricted access within an environment can include: chests, files with confidential data, an electronic device, work stations, virtual work environments, material deposits, among others.

Figure 1 illustrates an application layout of the control method of the present invention, in which it is desired to control access to the interior of a restricted environment 10, in which such an environment 10 has two possible inputs, and, for each input, a control area 14 external to the restricted environment 10. In this configuration, an individual wishing to access the environment 10 is positioned within the boundaries of the control area 14 and performs its identification. In case the individual is authorized after recognition, access is allowed.

Therefore, the aforementioned procedure may comprise the steps of: i) entry of the individual in the control area; ii) recognition of the individual; iii) release of access to the restricted environment; iv) access of the individual to the restricted environment; v) detection of invasion attempts; Y vi) blocking of the restricted access resource in case of detection of invasion attempt.

In this way, this procedure ensures information if only authorized individuals have access to the restricted environment or if there is an attempt to invade. 10. The same procedure can be applied to more than one individual, simultane- ously or not, allowing access to multiple individuals. . With this, it is possible to determine how many individuals entered the restricted environment and who those individuals are, even without monitoring the restricted environment itself.

Figure 2 illustrates a flow diagram of the method of the present invention applied to an individual, in accordance with a preferred embodiment.

For this procedure to be carried out with due security, the control area 14 is monitored by at least one sensor 16 capable of quantifying the number of individuals inside it. In addition, at least one recognition means 18 is provided for the recognition of the at least one individual from the control area 14. In this way, the procedure is only initiated if the sensors 16 indicate that the expected number of individuals is within the limits of the control area 14. Preferably, the procedure will only be initiated if only one individual is within the control area 14.

In addition, the control area determines physical limits that can not be exceeded, delimited by a control perimeter 15 until the end of the procedure, in order to ensure that the individual who initiates the procedure is the same who will have access to the restricted environment 10, in case the individual has permission to do so. Optionally, an additional means for recognizing the individual may be disposed within the environment 10. In this way, it is ensured even more effectively that the individual initiating the procedure in the control area 14 is the same one that will have access to restricted resource 10a within environment 10, ensuring that there was no attempt to invade.

In that way, in case the sensors 16 indicate that an individual crossed the control perimeter 15, in either direction (inside out or outside inward), a procedural violation signal may be issued, and, optionally, the procedure is immediately interrupted. Accordingly, access to the restricted environment 10 and the restricted resource 10a is then denied. In this way, the individual is prevented from leaving the control area and the individuals enter the control area during the recognition process of the user.

Therefore, a change of individuals within the control area 14 is also completely avoided, making sure that only a certain number of individuals are within the control area 14 and that the individuals who initiate the procedure are the same ones who finish (with access). to the restricted environment 10 allowed or denied). Preferably, an individual performs the procedure at a time, so that the system must ensure the presence of only one individual within the control area 14.

Additionally, after the recognition of the user, in the event that he is authorized to access the restricted environment 10, the user may cross the control perimeter 15 only in order to access the restricted environment, through at least one access strip 15a.

In some applications, after the access authorization, the user is authorized to cross the perimeter 15 of control only by the access strip 15a to the restricted environment 10. In case the user crosses the security perimeter 15 at any other point, or even in case another individual crosses the security perimeter 15, the system emits a signal of violation and the validation process is interrupted. In this way, it is ensured that the user within the control area 15 is the only one who will access the restricted environment 10 at that instant.

In order to increase the security level of the proposed system, a physical barrier can be used at the limits of access to the restricted environment 10. In this way, when the system authorizes the user's access, the barrier is released, and, after the user's entrance, the barrier closes again. Optionally, the barrier can be one between door, gate, gate, or any other type of barrier. Optionally, the barriers may comprise locking elements that are only unlocked when the user has access to the restricted environment 10 released.

After the user accesses the restricted environment 10, the system can, optionally: interrupt the control over the control perimeter 15; maintain control, so as not to authorize the access of other individuals; or start a new validation process for an additional individual.

Preferably, the elements of the system are preferably controlled by a processor, previously programmed, so that the recognition of the user, the release of access, and the possible sending of the signal of violation are made automatically, without human interference.

The processor can also be programmed to repeat the procedures for recognition, authorization and release of access as many times as necessary. Thus, in situations in which access to the restricted environment 10 must be released to a certain number N of individuals, the procedure mentioned above is repeated N times.

In alternative configurations, the system of the present invention can be programmed to perform the procedures of recognition, authorization and release of access for more than one individual in a single stage. Thus, the number N of individuals within control area 14 is counted, each of the N individuals is recognized and, in case all N individuals are authorized, access is released.

In case the procedure of a specific individual, among the N individuals, is violated, the system can: - issue a signal of violation of the procedure of the specific individual, interrupting only the procedure of the specific individual, and demand that only that procedure be repeated; or - emit a signal of violation of the procedure as a whole, interrupting the validation process of all individuals and demanding that the procedure be repeated with all individuals.

In addition optionally, as already mentioned above, the restricted environment may contain, internally, a restricted resource 10a, so that access to the restricted container 10a is authorized only when all the individual Ns had unrestricted access to the restricted environment. Such a restricted resource 10a can be a chest, an electronic box, a self-service terminal, a delimited area without barriers, a deposit of controlled materials, various objects, a room for the presentation of confidential data, an electronic device, among others.

It is important to note that the restricted environment 10 may simply be a certain area, with visual indications about the limits of that area or not, with or without barriers preventing the access of unauthorized individuals to the restricted environment 10.

In some applications, recognition of the user is performed through a recognition means 18 which comprises a user interface positioned within the control area 14, in which the user interface is in communication with the processor. In addition, the processor it can contain all the information of the restricted area or it can be in communication with a network (internet, WLAN, private network, etc.) that contains said information.

The identification and validation of the user can occur in various ways, such as, for example, the use of magnetic cards, smart cards ("smartcards"), reading of biometric data, registration of signs and / or personal codes, among others. Any form of identification and validation used in the state of the art can be applied to the system now presented.

Preferably, the system uses a biometric data comparator (iris, face, digital impression, voice, weight and height) to perform the recognition of an individual previously registered in a data bank for comparison at the time of execution of the desired operation for the individual. The use of this resource guarantees greater speed and security at this stage of the procedure, since the identification and validation of the individual are carried out in a single procedure.

Optionally, the system can issue alarms in response to the violation signal. These alarms can be sound alarms, visual alarms, messages to the security centers, messages to the user, among other types of alarms.

With the application of the proposed system, it is possible significantly increase the level of security in restricted environments, since the system, through the automatic control of all accesses to these environments, achieves: - Accurately count the number of individuals who have access to a certain restricted environment; - ensure that only the authorized individual (s) have access to the restricted environment; Y - ensure that only the authorized individual (s) have access to a restricted object within a restricted environment.

For the control system to operate reliably, the control area 14 is monitored by sensors 16 that automatically perform the count of the number of individuals within their limits. For this stage, any known state sensor can be used, such as depth sensor, image sensor, cameras, among others.

Preferably, a depth sensor is used to delimit and monitor the control area and its perimeter, since it is capable of, at the same time, delimiting the aforementioned area, identifying the presence of people or objects and releasing or not the access through one of the sides of the control perimeter (access strip).

Figure 3 illustrates the operation of a depth sensor 16, in which the individual is within the limits of vision of the sensor 22. It is noted that there is a region of shadow 24 in which the sensor's vision is obstructed by the individual himself. In this case, it is possible to use, moreover, more than one sensor, positioned inclined to each other, in order to mitigate the maximum shadow areas. This way, it is guaranteed that objects or unauthorized people can not get positioned within the control area without being identified by the sensors. Alternatively, auxiliary detection systems can be used for the reduction of shadow areas.

For the delimitation and monitoring of the control area 14 and its perimeter 15 any known technique can be used. Preferably, a technique such as that of the document US2013136307 (A1) already mentioned above is used in the background of the present invention, the description of which is incorporated herein by reference. As mentioned, such document discloses a method for counting the objects that use an image sensor and a depth sensor, and comprises the steps of (i) acquiring an image from the image sensor and acquiring an image from the image sensor. Depth map from depth sensor, depth map indicates detailed information about objects in the image; (ii) acquisition of information about border objects in the image by applying the limit information for the depth map to generate a corrected depth map; and (iii) identify the pattern of depth of the objects from the corrected depth map and counting the identified objects.

Preferably, the control area 14 has no objects, so that the counting of individuals is done with more precision. However, in some configurations, the control area 14 may comprise objects within its limits. In this way, in order to increase the reliability of the system, before the initiation of the procedure for counting individuals, the system can generate a map of the empty environment so as to consider objects of permanent location during the counting of the individuals.

During this stage the system stores the profitability of each point of the control area 14 in a matrix of mxn elements, where m represents the number of points in the width of the coverage space and n represents the number of points in the length, both of the coverage space of the control area 14, monitored by the sensor. This matrix represents the contours of the empty control area 14, with all the objects of permanent location, without the presence of individuals, and will serve as a reference for the detection of people at the moment when the system comes into operation . These matrices represent the situation of "Empty Space", being that any significant difference in its content will indicate the presence of individuals, volumes or interferences.

Optionally, the system can, through the reading of monitoring devices installed in the restricted environment, recognize that it is empty before starting the described process.

The present invention also claims a method of access control to a restricted environment comprising the steps of: delimiting the control area 14 comprising a control perimeter 15 around it through at least one sensor 16; recognizing at least one individual in the at least one control area 14 through at least one recognition means 18; authorize the at least one individual to access the environment 10 through at least one access strip 15a of the control perimeter 15 of the control area 14, in case there is no violation of the control perimeter 15 during execution of the method and in case at least one recognized individual has authorization to access the environment 10.

Optionally, the method of the present invention may contain one or more of the following steps; - before counting the number of individuals in a control area, verify if it is empty; - before counting the number of individuals in an area of control, check if the restricted environment is empty; - emit a signal of violation in case the number of individuals counted is different from the number of individuals authorized to have access, or the at least one identified individual is different from the at least one individual authorized to have access, or identification of at least one individual is not confirmed; Y - allow the access of the individual only by a restricted access zone, in which a violation signal is issued in case the security perimeter is reached outside the access zone.

Claims (10)

1 . Automated access control method, applying control to the access of an environment (10) from a control area (14) adjacent to it, characterized in that it comprises the steps of: delimiting the control area (14) comprising a control perimeter (15) around it through at least one sensor (16); recognizing at least one individual in the at least one control area (14) through at least one means of recognition (18); Y authorize the at least one individual to access the environment (10) through at least one access strip (15a) of the control perimeter (15) of the control area (14), in case there is no violation of the control perimeter (15) during the execution of the method and in case the at least one recognized individual has authorization to access the environment (10).

2. Method, according to claim 1, characterized in that it additionally comprises the steps of: recognizing the at least one individual in the environment (10) through at least one additional recognition means; and authorize that the at least one individual access a restricted resource (10a) in the environment (10), in case there is no violation of the control perimeter (15) during the execution of the method and in case the at least one recognized individual has authorization to access the resource (10a).

3. Method, according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that it comprises a further step of recognizing the at least one individual in the environment (10) through at least one additional recognition means.

4. Method, according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the step of recognizing at least one individual uses at least one of biometric recognition, identification by magnetic card, identification by access code.

5. Automated access control system, applying control to the access of an environment (10) from a control area (14) adjacent to it, characterized in that it comprises: a sensor means (16) for delimiting the control area (14) comprising a control perimeter (1 5) around it; means for recognizing at least one individual in the at least one control area (14); means for authorizing the at least one individual to access the environment (10) through at least one access strip (15a) of the control perimeter (15) of the control area (14), in case there is no violation of the control perimeter (15) during the execution of the procedure and in case the at least one recognized individual has authorization to access the environment (10).

6. System, according to claim 5, characterized in that it additionally comprises: an additional means to recognize the at least one individual in the environment (10); Y a means to authorize that at least one individual access a restricted resource (1 0a) in the environment (10), in case there is no violation of the control perimeter (15) during the execution of the method and in case of that the at least one recognized individual has authorization to access the resource (10a).

7. System, according to claim 5 or 6, characterized in that the sensor means is at least one among the group consisting of a depth sensor (16), an image sensor, a presence / movement sensor.

8. System, according to any one of claims 5 to 7, characterized in that the means for recognizing at least one individual is at least one of a biometric recognition device, a magnetic card identification device, an identification device. by access code.

9. System, according to any one of claims 6 to 8, characterized in that the additional means for recognizing the at least one individual in the environment (10) is at least one of a recognition device. biometric, an identification device by magnetic card, an identification device by access code.

10. System, according to any one of claims 5 to 9, characterized in that the means to authorize is a processor that is responsible for the control of the entire system.