Exclusive Interview: Aurora

Aurora is a leading specialist developer of Facial Recognition systems. Renowned internationally for the unparalleled accuracy of its Facial Recognition algorithms, Aurora has emerged as the face of biometrics.

UK Construction Media spoke with Aurora about the Company’s experience and the many construction applications of Facial Recognition systems.

Could you tell us a bit about the company and its origins?

Aurora is a UK based world leader in Facial Recognition technology. With nearly 20 years’ experience and a unique approach to the technology, our solutions are in use worldwide in different applications, which include airport passenger management and access control. We carry out all development and support “in house” and offer a range of products that have been designed specifically for the construction industry. Our Technical Support team provides direct support to our customers, both on site and remotely.

Has your work always been within the construction industry and if not, how did that happen?

We work in different industries with this technology, but construction has always been a key part of our business. The construction industry was an early adopter of biometric technology due to the high incidence of wage fraud. Biometric verification eliminates these issues. Knowing who is on site is important to every industry, but in construction there are enhanced Health and Safety considerations and it’s also useful for management to know exactly how many individuals from each trade are working at any given time. 

Using Face Recognition for this task offers a number of advantages over normal biometric systems. For operatives, the main benefit is the hardware being non-contact and extremely fast. For management, the system eliminates buddy punching and ghost workers. Our systems save our customers many hundreds of thousands of pounds per year by eliminating fraud and making administration easier

Your biometric facial recognition system is used in construction. What does this involve?

ClockFace+ is our most widely deployed solution in this industry. Operatives enter a PIN code (or use a card) and look at the sensor to be verified, with the whole process taking a few seconds. Because ClockFace+ was designed for the construction industry, users can also receive Health & Safety graphics and even individual messages when they pass through. ClockFace+ can also control a turnstile for controlling access to site and we produce a rapidly deployable combination of these called the Integrated Biometric Turnstile, or IBT.

There is an extensive suite of software modules for reporting on site attendance, hours worked, trades on site and each operative’s record can include comprehensive data such as HMRC details, scanned documents and safety records.

Which other of your products are useful in a construction environment and what do they do?

We also offer a phone and tablet solutions which keep photo records of individuals clocking in/out together with the GPS location of the device at the time. This is an ideal solution for semi-permanent sites or a small, mobile workforce. 

These mobile solutions link in the cloud to the same reporting and analysis software as the ClockFace+ biometric units, so we can offer a solution for any size of company across many varied locations.

What do you believe you can offer the construction industry that is different to what already exists?

We are the only company manufacturing a Facial Recognition based solution for this application. All other biometric systems are based on Fingerprint or Palm/Vein scanning technology and Facial Recognition offers a number of advantages over these. For example, we take an image of everybody using the system so anyone attempting to enter as somebody else, or enter when they shouldn’t, will have their picture taken. We also believe we have the most comprehensive reporting software available, having refined this over many years of working with some of the country’s largest construction companies.

How do you see these products further improving the industry in the future?

These are exciting times for us, as we have just deployed the world’s first Facial Recognition system for construction industry Time & Attendance use using Deep Learning, a form of artificial intelligence. This new method increases both the speed and accuracy of recognition and soon users will not even need a PIN number or card, this new breed of Facial Recognition will recognise them as soon as the present to the sensor and clock them in or out of site.

For more information on how Aurora’s Facial Recognition systems can benefit your business, please visit the Company’s website.

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