Star Link - Serving Clients on Customer Oriented Policy

Till now we have discussed about our technologies used in our devices and solutions. Also, we discussed about our unique solutions that revolutionized the world of biometrics. But this time I am going to throw a light on our one of the major projects accomplished in our blooming days in 2009, when Biometrics Attendance System was germinating and spreading its roots in India. The project was done in YAMAHA India at Surajpur.

YAMAHA wanted to streamline their employees at work stations. Since the strength of workers is very large, it was very difficult and hectic to manage them. Due to the mismanagement of employees, they were facing administrative losses, financial losses and time losses. So, they wanted desperately to establish any system in their company premises, which can reduce all their losses and streamline the work force easily. In concern about this, they contacted Star Link India to provide a solution and system according to their requirements. And YES! We installed devices, according to their requirement, doing all possible customizations to fit their work criteria. And it's been almost 6 years and everything is running smoothly and flawlessly.

We have provided a card to each employee, including their Date of Joining, Date of birth. The card was unique to each employee, which was used to mark their attendance. If any employee misses his/her card, then his previous card is blocked.

But, one of the major problems they faced was that, it was uncertain for them or a time consuming task finding the number of workers present at the work station in a particular department. So the production delayed as casual workers were having to take place of absent employees. Until and unless the exact number of designated workers are not present, they cannot start the line; this created a lot of problem and LOSSes as well.

Star Link India installed device with 25000 finger templates, to record the attendance of the employees. And, within 3 minutes of the start of the shift, a report of absent employees is generated. This helped them to designate the casual workers without any delay in starting work on the production line. The generation of the report in 3 minutes helped them to reduce the losses, which they faced earlier due to delay in starting work.

Then we did customizations in our devices to fulfill the requirement of YAMAHA, and that changes were commendable in 2009. Almost none of the companies were providing any kind of such customized features, but we did. Following are the few major customizations done in our devices to resolve their persisting issues:-

・ If any group of employees were late for a certain indispensable reason, then we introduced an option of REASON, which included different types of reasons like bus late, heavy traffic, weather problem or others.

・ An error report is generated which shows the reject list of the employees who attempted to enter without having their name in the card list. You can say in other words, a report is generated by employees who attempt unauthorized entry.

・ The validity of the cards of the employees was designated for a certain period of time for particular type of workers.

・ Other customization done was, Finger BY-PASS. The by-pass was done to reduce the chaos of the employees. For an instance, if the number of employees increases at any time, then finger bypass is done and employees are allowed to get the authentication, through showing cards only, irrespective of card and finger both. This took less time and helped to wash out the crowd of employees easily in less time.

・ When new employees are registered, the masking is done on every machine at a single click.

・ Also, when any employee is deleted, it can deleted from every machine with a single click. Multiple employee/ Multiple machine addition or deletion option is there.

・ Whenever any new machine is replaced by an older one, the masking is done easily without any hassle.

・ To reduce the manual punching, the machine is restricted to accept the manual punching.

・ And one of the interesting feature is that machine wishes HAPPY BIRTH DAY to a particular employee on his particular birth date.

・ Multiple card entry at a single time is prohibited, as employees used to do proxy punching by showing multiple card. This has been done by fixing a time interval between 2 card punching.

Additionally, many other customizations have been done at certain levels of requirement. But these were unique in 2008. After passage of time, we also installed 8 door access control in YAMAHA India and coffee vending machine solution is installed, which limited the usage according to the level of employee. And also our machines are installed in YAMAHA, Chennai.

At last, I want to acclaim that StarLink India always focused on customer oriented service delivery. We are always ready for customization our machines and solution according to the requirement of the clients, not only YAMAHA but we did this for many other clients. But since it was done in that time, when it was considered as a commendable task to accomplish. Now, for many of the clients, StarLink has become a reliable source of the biometric attendance system and access control solutions. So in a nutshell, if you are also looking to manage and streamline the workforce at your office premises, STAR LINK INDIA is the best service provider. Think upon, choice is yours!!

How Fingerprint Recognition Technology Works in Our Devices ?

Biometrics have taken a long flight in the attendance system in this rapidly growing era of technology. Biometrics is the identification of a person based on his intrinsic characteristics, such as voice, fingerprint, iris, face and hand geometry, etc. But the most famous biometric characteristics used in attendance devices are fingerprint recognition. Fingerprint recognition is one of the most popular biometric techniques used in automatic personal identification and verification.

The use of biometrics has revolutionized the technology and level of security, wherever the biometric devices are installed. But in the course of design and development of biometric devices, the use of fingerprint recognition technology is used.

StarLink India uses the “Fingerprint Recognition Technology"StarLink India uses the “Fingerprint Recognition Technology” for verification process in its devices. During this matching process we use minutiae matching for finger verification with its template. But again the question arises, how does the template is formed? And what is minutiae matching?

Let us discuss all about the process of fingerprint template formation and minutiae matching. May be the step will seem very complex, but this whole process takes place in milliseconds.

The fingerprint is captured through optical sensor, which takes the mono-chrome image of finger print in 8bit-grayscale. Then, the 8 bit grayscale images are converted into 0&1 depending on the permutations & combinations of the nearby pixels. This is decided by running an algorithm.

Initially the image of a fingerprint that is captured by optical sensor accompanied by the CMOS sensor is in grayscale, which is not so clear. The image is filtered based on FIR (Finite Impulse Response) is used to convert the gray scale images into single thin line and as a result sharp image of fingerprint pattern is formed. Undirected lines are removed and each cut marks and unwanted marks are removed and the ridges are joined for the perfect pattern.

After this process, Gabor filter is used, which forms the 4X4 block of pixel. Then, points are marked on valleys, ridges, bifurcations and deltas. Then its 15-20 minutiae are marked in X-Y axis, including the direction of the minutiae. A unique pattern is formed by matching minutiae with its directions. Thus, the image formed is a final fingerprint template which is an array of minutiae of 240x320 pixels in the range of 200-500 byte.

Now templates of fingerprints are stored in the memory of the device. After the storage of template, whenever anyone punches, the templates stored is matched with his fingerprint. The matching is done on the basis of “matching score”, which is fixed by the admin. We have to take care while deciding the Matching score, because the FALSE ACCEPTANCE RATE increases with decrease in security score, whereas FALSE REJECTION RATE increases when security score increases.

The fingerprint matching is done in Our Devices on the following methods:-

1:1 matching: In this method, employer shows their attendance card (which holds it details), then a message comes off “Put finger”. So when he shows the ID, the finger template is stored against his name is matched with the fingerprint he is punching. And after which message of success or failure comes. It is very fast matching method which takes less time; and this method is perfect for the workplace of more than 1000 employees.

1:N matching: In this method, the employee punches and his fingerprint are matched with the total number of templates stored in the device and depending on the matching score, the success or failure rate is decided. This method is perfect for the work place of less than 1000 employees as it takes more time than the previous one.

All this process is handled by a dedicated DSP (Digital Signal Processor) running at 400 MHz speed in StarLink's Devices.

Although it may appear to be a simple process, fingerprint recognition involves the state-of-the-art technology in hardware, for the readers, and software, to process the fingerprint images and templates. But due to the effort of our hardware and software team, all this complexity is hidden and fingerprint technology usage is nowadays as simple as touching the reader.

StarLink has expertise in manufacturing and designing the fingerprint system according to the requirements. So if you want to consider this technology and want a flawless operation of your biometric devices, then StarLink will certainly help out with best device. 

Limit The Usage of Coffee Vending Machine

Star Link has achieved many milestones in customizing every kind of solutions running any corporate offices; may be access control, canteen management, visitor management or time office software. But this time I am going to let you know about the customization done in "Beverage Vending Machines" or  "Coffee Vending Machines".

There are many companies where certain rules are made for use Coffee Vending machines. These rules vary from level to level, like different for HR, Employees or other staffs. So looking at the same condition, Star Link has customized the solution by authorizing the number of times it can be used. This permission can be given to the employees based on their department, profile or may be individual type. The Admin of the solution is required to allow, the permission though the software.

Each employee is issued a card, which includes his details. Whenever he goes to use the coffee vending machine he have to show the card for identity verification. Like wise the same process can be repeated whenever anyone goes to get the coffee, the number of times he/she is allowed.

The major problem was related to the workers or employees who are employed on contract basis in the companies; for them the companies pay for every service. Though some company faces the problem related to the unauthorized usage of canteen facility or coffee vending machine. Keeping in mind this prevailing problem, Star Link provided a solution which solved it easily.

As we recharge the Metro Smart card with a certain amount which allows us to use the service uninterrupted till there is balance, likewise the smart cards which are issued to casual workers or employees on contract basis, will be recharged with a certain amount for using coffee vending machine or canteen services, paid by employees themselves. After recharging they can use the vending machine; which will automatically reduce the fixed amount of coffee every time it is used.

 

                       

The above solution helped a lot to restrict the over-usage of services. The recharge of the card can be done by the Admin who is responsible to control all these solutions. This will help to maintain the balance record as well.

So if you are also looking to synchronize your canteen services or coffee vending machine, employee wise or department wise; you hit the nut shell. Just browse Star Link India and ask for this solution. It is going to reduce all your additional costs and other extra human efforts.

Automated Siren System for Work Places

We all have seen or heard the sirens or bells at the work place at different interval of times. As the siren blows the employers are going into the premises of the workplace or production line and when it blows, they are back from. This is the common scene we all are aware of. This traditional method has been used for last many years. But they were manual which sometimes failed due to certain reason.

Now-a-days in the technological era the working of the sirens or bells have also been automated. Star Link developed Hooter InterfaceNow-a-days in the technological era the working of the sirens or bells have also been automated. Star Link developed Hooter Interface, which can be linked with solutions for proper effortless & precise working with accuracy. Different timings are set for its working through solution provided by Star Link.

Before proceeding forward I would like you to introduce what actually is Hooter Interface. It is basically an interface which is connected through the serial port with our system. It works on a single phase 10A output, which helps to blow the siren, hooter or bell connected to it.

The Hooter interface is connected to the device which is used for the attendance system through a serial port. Then the timings are fixed through solutions connected with it. It can accept maximum 25 time settings in a day. Additionally, the duration of sirens can vary from 1 to 99 seconds as per set value.

The best example of the hooter interface for blowing siren or bell is seen in schools, production units, coal mines, construction sites spread in larger dimensions and many other locations where many employers work together. Star Link provides the best possible customized solution according to the requirement of respective clients.

Managing Our Software Flawlessly with SQL Express

Before developing any software, the developer keep in mind about the database. It is necessary if you have a lot of data to work with which will be easier to manage if they can avoid the complexities of building and maintaining the records. Since the number of potential users of Star Link's software is so huge that the potential for data is equally huge. Not only that, but beyond the sheer amount of data that may be collected from users of the application software and stored for use by the system there is the factor of maintainability. Databases make organizing and maintaining long-term data easier.

Star Link uses SQL Express to maintain the database of software like Time Office Software, Leave Management System, Payroll Software, Canteen Management and almost every software. And this software has the capability of managing thousands of employees without any worry. The data which are stored in the database is in the form of strings, integer or date and time. For data storage of each employees and date and time can be maintained through this. The Software Developed by Star Link is made more capacities and versatile on different platforms for high-performance. For the conditional, database and fast processing, we use SQL server, which makes our work easier.

SQL Express 2005,2008,2012 can be used to manage the data base as it is easier to manage and maintain. The GOI interface used in SQL Server is SQL Server Management Studio which makes it easier to work upon. Multiple data type is easy to manage and data is recorded according to the prescribed format. Different fields can be created according to the requirement; like SL, half day and other data fields.

How it is useful?

• SQL Express is compatible with every platform with fast processing and easy maintenance.

• Computation is very fast with fast access.

• Database indexing can be done easily and it gets updated automatically.

• It has easy interface to work upon.

• It helps to shrink the data which occupy larger spaces.

• The most important feature is that it features auto scheduled backup.

• Client Server approach.

• Database handling is easier.

• It allows the application to be handled remotely.

• Searching is fast.

• Every kind of data can be stored.

• And many more..

Since the features are impeccable, so it is preferred to develop our software. Star Link Applications and Software's are more versatile and compatible at different level of works. Our software is easy to handle and maintain, thus you can opt for our software for easy maintenance. 

Biometrics for Door Access Control

Biometrics is the future of security and access control. We know how organizations are using employing the technology in attendance systems to ensure correct entry and exit recordings in the database. But biometrics is a field that doesn’t cease to amaze and remains largely unexplored for the time being.  A biometrics system uses unique human traits that vary from person to person to identify a particular person or a set of persons. These unique traits can be finger prints, voice control or retina imaging.

We all are accustomed to watching James bond accessing different gadgets and accessing controls to different doors with a touch of finger or a retina scan. Those there are some cool biometric applications for you.

Let us look into a lesser known application of biometrics i.e. door access control.

There are various sections/departments in an organization where access has to be restricted or limited to an extent. For an example, a movie theater restricts entry of the movie goers to certain sections by installing gates that require unique recognition. At these gates, the staff members can use their unique physical traits to request access and enter a particular section.

Door Access Control System

How does biometrics work in case of door access system?

First things first, a unique trait is decided upon to be used as the identifier for access to doors. Let’s say we decided upon fingerprints to be used as the identifier. Now we need to record finger prints of the staff/ people who are allowed to access the particular door. Once the finger prints are recorded, they are to be synchronized with the access control system in such a manner that they recognize the allowed identifiers without any lag or problem.

Now when a person presses his finger against the interface which observes finger prints, the system would either recognize a positive result i.e. matched finger prints, or negative results i.e. unmatched finger prints. In case of positive results, the door which is already locked door is unlocked and the person is granted access. If the result is negative, then the door remains closed and the entry is denied.

This is how unwanted access to certain sections is restricted in organizations that seek security and privacy. Similarly, with the help of biometrics technology a lot of tasks can be accomplished and simplified further.

GPRS Enabled Attendance Device from Star Link India

We all are aware of the term GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) which is basically a packet switching technology that enables device to transfer data by connecting to the internet. Almost each phone is enabled with GPRS, which connects to the internet. The use of GPRS is making the daily life of people easier and perfect. We can get to know about the whole world with the simple handheld devices.

But have you ever imagined that GPRS can bring a kind of revolution in the field of Biometrics Attendance System. With the help of GPRS, a device can be installed in far flung areas without internet connectivity. This can help those construction companies that work in far off areas without a proper connection set-up.

Star Link has designed a GPRS enabled biometric attendance machine keeping in mind above quoted things to remove the problems faced by major construction companies and other security service providing agencies. The usage of GPRS enabled device will help to streamline the work with ease and channelize the work force.

But the major question arising in your mind would be: How it works? How it is connected to the server? How it is beneficial for the user?

How GPRS enabled devices are connected to the server?

The devices designed and developed by Star Link India are GPRS enabled with a SIM card slot. The SIM card used in these devices should be postpaid, or prepaid with data pack. Then after inserting the SIM card, the network is selected through the menu through the machine.

Then, PPP protocol establishes the connection to the internet, as a result Public IP is assigned to a device and the gateway. Server IP (Public Static IP of Server where Time Office is installed)  is configured which helps to connect to the server. Now connection request is sent from the device. There are two possibilities for outcome of connection requests, whether it will be rejected or accepted. If the connection is not being established, then the machine keeps on sending the request every 3 minutes. Then, after one hour, even if it doesn't get connected, the device pings Google. If google also doesn't work then, the device itself breaks the connection and re-establishes the connection. And if Google responds to its ping, then device keeps on sending the request every 3 minutes. This process continues until unless the connection is established.

How it works?

Once connection is established, it sends the data to the server for further processing. It also checks the server whether any finger management task is pending or not like the addition of a user with a finger, configuration related tasks (i.e. Machine password, Machine battery, voltage reading, etc.).

The MOST Important Feature of GPRS enabled devices from Star Link India:-

Even if the device has lost its connection for a few days due to any reason or data pack is over, then in that condition the device still works and stores the data offline. As soon as it gets connected to the server, it sends the complete data which it has stored for the last few days. It may work without any connection for even months, as it will store the data offline.

User can also check the balance data in the SIM card using USSD codes through the keypad on the machine. Also, machine firmware updates can be done on the air from the server itself. And, almost 500 GPRS enabled devices can be connected to the server for the same purpose.

So do consider Star Link's GPRS enabled device for attendance management system from far off areas.