Fingertip Technology arrives at St Benedict's

Published on isbi School News dated Friday 25th of May 2012

St Benedict's School is embracing the very latest in modern technology by installing a fingertip recognition system called VeriCool for Schools. Initially this will be used by pupils and staff to purchase food in the Orchard Hall by placing their 'enrolled' finger on a fingertip scanner. The immediate benefit will be that it will replace the current swipe cards which can be forgotten, lost or lent to other pupils. It will also have the added benefit of speeding up the lunch time queues. In addition staff will use this system to sign in and out of school.

VeriCool were in school setting up the system on Wednesday 23rd May. It took about fifteen seconds for each person to record their fingerprint but it was a full day's work - across the school there were around 1000 pupils and staff to be recorded.

During the enrolment process the VeriCool software captured a digital signature of every person's index fingertip, which was then broken down into data points (similar to reference points on a map). The VeriCool software then converted these into an alpha- numeric string which is stored onto our own school server. No unauthorised person has access to this information and the stored data points can only be viewed as a meaningless string of numbers and letters. This software is very secure.
Catherine de Cintra, the school Bursar, explained that the VeriCool software will be applied in other areas in the future. 'In the Michaelmas term further software will be installed to allow parents to view their child's food purchases and top up their account online. During the next academic year the school also plans to use the fingertip system to allow pupils to take books out of the library.'