Iris Scans Could Be the Next Student ID

Identification cards have served college campuses well over the years, allowing students to do everything from gaining access to buildings to eating in the dining halls to charging purchases in the campus store. Soon, however, advances in technology may make the ID card obsolete.

With fingerprint readers and iris cameras already basic components in smartphones, some colleges and universities are working on ways to put those features to work. Campus stores are already experimenting with low-energy Bluetooth beacons to offer shoppers discounts as they enter. Advances in hand-geometry readers, which identify the shape of a user’s hand, are also on the horizon.

The University of Georgia, Athens, will allow students to enroll in a system that uses iris authentication to enter dining halls and the student center. Georgia Southern University in Statesboro has used iris cameras to control entry into dining halls since 2013 and has found data gained from the technology useful.

“If we have a freshman who’s living on campus and required to have a dining plan, and suddenly we see the student’s not coming in anymore—what’s going on?” said Richard Wynn, director of Eagle Card services at Georgia Southern. “We can actually alert housing staff and let them know we haven’t seen that student in a while and they can actually go check on them.”

Iris authentication could also be used for entry into residence halls, the library, and sports venues, providing the institution an idea of how individual students spend their day. That sort of information would be valuable in university marketing efforts, yet it also brings up privacy concerns.

“These aren’t scanners,” Bryan Varin, executive director of UGA dining services, said of hand-geometry readers and iris cameras. “Both of them are simply taking a picture and ending up with a mathematical equation that grants you entry.”

Smartphones Enable Fingerprint Security

Biometrics, such as fingerprint ID technology, would solve some security problems for college and university campuses. Without having to remember passwords or carry an ID or payment card, students could log into campus systems, access their dorms, and buy course materials at the bookstore, using just their finger.

At least one expert thinks the retail industry is ready to plunge into biometric tech. If it’s successful, that may encourage the use of biometrics in more consumer applications, including higher education. Sebastien Taveau, chief evangelist for touchpad vendor Synaptics, said smartphones are making fingerprint IDs easier and more palatable to consumers.

In an interview with the National Retail Federation’s Stores magazine, Taveau said consumers didn’t like the idea of pressing a fingerprint-sensing pad at retail checkouts. However, “they likely are going to be more comfortable having the fingerprint validated on their own smartphone or device so they can control it,” he explained.

That also means the fingerprint data are stored on the device, not in the retailer’s network, so the store doesn’t have to worry about hacking.

Update on the AccessText Network

As mentioned in a previous posting, the AccessText Network is working to make it easier for colleges and universities to provide course materials to students with disabilities. The initiative consists of an online database that aggregates publisher information to allow institutions to order electronic versions of the content or gain permission to scan course materials.

According to a recent article from eSchool News, the service is currently in beta testing and will officially launch in July 2010 but already more than 650 colleges and universities have enrolled. The article reports that with the system, orders can be fulfilled in about four days and already 3,000 requests have been fulfilled since August. Without AccessText, it can take weeks or months for students with disabilities to receive their textbooks. In addition, members of the network are able to access the publishers that produce 92 percent of the college textbooks on the market.

Mike Shuttic, president of the Association on Higher Education and Disability (AHEAD), commented that AccessText Network is "a significant step forward that combines stakeholder resources and addresses the rights of students with disabilities. I encourage every member of the disability community to coalesce around this solution, ensuring its success."

Cambridge University Press to make titles from the Cambridge Library Collection available for print-on-demand

According to a recent press release, Cambridge University Press has launched a new scanning initiative that will make 475 rare and out-of-print titles from the Cambridge Library Collection available for print-on-demand. Some of the titles in the collection are so valuable that they are no longer circulating and can only be viewed in the vault.

In an article from Inside Higher Ed, Erin Igoe, library sales and marketing manager for Cambridge University Press, commented on how they are increasing the accessibility of these rare books, “Some of these are titles that weren't available in the free domain. By making them available, we are creating a demand. Because they are scanned and available, people know they're out there.”

Cambridge University is one of several universities that have recently embarked on scanning and print-on-demand initiatives to make their rare books available to more customers. Other universities include: University of Michigan, Cornell University Library, and University of Pittsburgh Press. Cambridge University plans to expand their offering to include over 1,000 titles by the end of 2009.

Atiz Innovation unveils the BookDrive Pro scanning system

Last week, at the American Library Association Meeting, Atiz Innovation, Inc. unveiled their new book scanning system called the BookDrive Pro. The new system is an enhanced version of their previous model, the BookDrive DIY and designed to support the movement to digitize books. Both models use digital SLR cameras and a v-shaped book cradle to eliminate page curvature issues and damage to the book spine. To create the BookDrive Pro, Atiz worked with its library customers to resolve the weaknesses associated with the BookDrive DIY. The Atiz website provides comparison diagrams of the enhancements to the new model which include: a more ergonomic design, automatic camera positioning, double security locking mechanism for cameras, LED lighting panels for more even light distribution, and an Auto Capture Switch to automatically initiate scanning when a page has been turned. According to the press release, there are currently 500 BookDrive units in place across the world and Atiz expects to double their sales in 2009.

The continued digitization of library collections provides some interesting opportunities and challenges for college stores. On the one side, there are new opportunities for libraries and college stores to work together and share revenue, for instance, creating print-on-demand versions of items that have been scanned (where copyright allows, of course). As an example, McMaster University Titles Bookstore has created such a partnership with their library and is producing copies of some scanned, first edition classics that were signed by the original authors for resale, with a revenue share between the store and the library. What if as a collection of institutions (libraries and stores) we could share such collections in digital format, allowing the content to be sold through any store? As more books are digitized by libraries, and often made available through Google, what will be the impact on book retailers? What are the other opportunities for stores under these new business and content distribution models?