Wyari Pty Ltd

The client needed a secure biometric system for

• clock in/out of staff linked to payroll
• restricting access to expensive stock for loss prevention
• issuing of keys
• ensuring tasks such as security searches were performed correctly
• would function across thousands of sites globally
• easy to use and fast

We developed the solution from scratch to make use of the secure biometric terminals and door controllers that we had developed previously.

The management system was developed in PHP using the Yii2 framework on Ubuntu Linux with a Postrgresql database. This created a large centralised solution with realtime replication and redundancy across multiple data centres that could also be scaled down to operate within a terminal onsite if required in emergencies.

The system was progressively rolled out across the clients sites with typically 10 terminals and 8 door controllers per store. The system is used by 10's of thousands of people daily across multiple clients.

The client required a secure biometric controlled touch screen terminal for placement alongside secure doors and related administration locations.

The solution had to be totally configurable remotely via a secure network connection and in the event of unauthorised removal would become blank & inert to remove any possibility of reverse engineering.

Solution developed using

• Embedded Linux on an Intel micro board
• Highly accurate biometric fingerprint sensor
• High resolution screen with tough screen overlay
• The software was developed using -- C++ for the fingerprint interaction -- perl for other direct hardware interaction -- Meteor JS for the touch screen -- PHP for the main functionality and central server interfacing -- Postrgesql for local database

The use of the high level languages was to provide simpler long term code maintenance and consistency with the central server solution.

Typically the terminal was a slave device being controlled by the main server.

The client had been using dual channel door controller hardware from an overseas vendor for many years but the manufacturer ceased trading and the product was no longer available.

To overcome this I was engaged to

• replace the existing hardware with a new design that was compatible with the existing device
• add a secure networking capability to allow the hardware to be used for new projects

There was virtually no documentation on the existing product so the phases were

• reverse engineer the hardware interfaces and the serial communication protocol used by the existing hardware so that the new units could be used on existing client sites.
• identify all the security card (Wiegand) formats supported so they could be added
• replicate the existing functionality exactly to allow for direct in field swap out
• add secure standards based network functionality to the existing serial communications
• create an embedded web server for device management & configuration
• develop remote management and control software

The solution was implemented using

• PIC micro controllers for each door control channel
• An ARM based CPU running embedded Linux for -- the serial data connection -- network interface -- data encoding -- Wiegand format processing -- embedded web server

The product was developed and mass produced on time and within budget, it has now been deployed globally and is used by 10's of thousands of people every day