Brevillier Village is reported as being the nation’s first senior residential and healthcare facility to deploy iris recognition technology as part of a comprehensive physical security system and according to the technology company Princeton Identity their client is reaping the benefits.
The Princeton Identity IOM Access solution allows staff and residents with normal mental acuity to unlock exterior doors to exit the building by gazing into wall-mounted iris readers positioned near each exit, while restricting residents with dementia from opening the doors and leaving the building unsupervised. The system makes it possible for both non-dementia and dementia residents to live comfortably in the same building as part of a mixed population. Non-technical personnel at Brevillier Village can easily register new residents to the system and, if a resident begins to experience cognitive decline, his or her iris credentials can be deactivated, allowing them to remain living in the familiar surroundings of their own apartment rather than move to a fully locked facility.
The Princeton Identity solution piggybacks onto the Assa Abloy Securitron access control infrastructure that was already in place at Brevillier Village, with each iris scan logging as an “event” within the access control system. Two reader “heads” are located at each monitored doorway – one positioned for standing residents and the other for those in wheelchairs. These are connected to integrated control units that communicate over Ethernet cabling back to the server room. Dan Desrocher, the facility’s Director of Development, says that “If there’s any question about who left the building at a given time, we can look at who had their iris scanned and then check surveillance video to make sure that they are the only person who went through the door. From a security standpoint, this is far more information than was available using the keypad system we had in place, for which everyone shared the same code.”
Brevillier administration places a high value on security, regarding it not only as an operational imperative but as a point-of-differentiation in the highly competitive senior living and healthcare market. The investment in technology is paying off. Brand awareness for Brevillier Village has skyrocketed and, in 2017, it was honoured for the first time with the region’s prestigious Erie’s Choice Award for Best Retirement Facility, beating out a much larger facility that had won for the past ten years in a row.
Mark Clifton, Princeton Identity’s CEO, says, “This project highlight some of the advantages in deploying iris recognition in healthcare and assisted-living facilities. There are no keypad codes to remember, it doesn’t require a free hand and it’s touchless, making it completely sanitary.” Brevillier’s Dan Desrocher adds, “We’re using the technology to keep people in, rather than keep people out, but we could definitely use the other way too. With an iris reader, residents would no longer have to fumble for a key fob to get into a building. The convenience factor is huge.”
