Systems and methods for an automated entry system

• US 9,633,498 B2
• Filed: 03/20/2014
• Issued: 04/25/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 03/21/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Unisys Corporation
• Original Assignee: Unisys Corporation
• Inventors: Wiewiora, Jan Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): Sherwin, Ryan
• Application Number:
  US14/220,174
• Publication Number:
  US 20140285315A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,132 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/37 using biometric data, e.g. fingerprints, iris scans or voice recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/38 with central registration

Abstract

Disclosed herein are systems and methods for determining whether individuals seeking access to a facility site are authorized to enter. The system identifies a license plate of a vehicle approaching a controlled entrance of the facility site. If the vehicle is found in a database of enrolled entrants, then an enrolled entrant is loaded into a quick access memory. Iris scans of passengers the passengers are taken and compared against records of the enrolled entrants, beginning with the expected passengers identified as being associated with the license of the vehicle approaching the facility site.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for controlling access to a facility at an access control point, the method comprising:

receiving, by a computer of an access control system, an image from a camera of a license plate associated with a vehicle approaching the access control point;

searching, by the computer, for a record of the vehicle according to the license plate in a first data base of one or more databases logically residing in a hierarchical architecture storing one or more records of vehicles approaching the access control point, and wherein each record of the vehicle comprises the license plate, an indication of an identity for one or more individuals previously identified in the vehicle from a prior entry, a unique iris scan of the one or more previously identified individuals from a prior entry, and an indication of whether authorization was granted;

searching, by the computer, when the record of the license plate is not found in the first database, remaining databases of the one or more databases that are at a higher-hierarchical level than the first database to retrieve one or more deny access records of the license plate indicating an identified problem for granting access to the vehicle,

storing, by the computer, the record of the vehicle into a cache memory accessible to the computer before the vehicle reaches an iris scanner;

receiving, by the computer, a scan from the iris scanner of an iris of each individual currently in the vehicle;

comparing, by the computer, the scan of the iris of each individual currently in the vehicle against the unique iris scan for previous one or more individuals in the record of the vehicle;

denying, by the computer, access for the vehicle responsive to determining that the one or more retrieved deny access records indicate problems have been identified; and

authorizing, by the computer, access for the vehicle responsive to determining that the individuals currently in the vehicle matches the previous one or more individuals in the vehicle identified from the prior entry and upon determining that the record indicates that authorization was previously granted.

2. The method according to claim 1, furtherer comprising, when the individual currently in the vehicle does not the previous individual in the record in the cache memory:

identifying by the computer, a record in the first database of an individual authorized to enter the access control point comprising a unique iris scan matching the iris scan of the individual currently in the vehicle; and

authorizing, by the computer, access for the vehicle responsive to determining that the current individual is authorized to enter based upon the match of the iris scan of the current individual with the unique iris scan of the authorized individual.

3. The method according to claim 2, further comprising identifying, by the computer, the record in the second database of the one or more databases for an individual authorized to enter the access control point comprising the unique iris scan matching the iris scan of the individual currently in the vehicle.

4. The method according to claim 1, further comprising searching, by the computer, a second database for the record of the vehicle according to the license plate.

5. The method according to claim 1, further comprising recognizing, by the computer, a jurisdiction and a set of characters for the license plate.

6. The method according to claim 5, further comprising determining, by the computer, whether the license plate is associated with a record in a crime database.

7. The method according to claim 6, further comprising updating, by the computer, a local watch list in a local database when the license plate is associated with a watch list in the crime database.

8. The method according to claim 1, further comprising associating, by the computer, the individual currently in the vehicle with the vehicle in a new record of one or more databases upon granting authorization for entry.

9. The method according to claim 1, further comprising replicating, by the computer, the first database associated with the access control point to the second database of the one or more databases associated with the facility site, wherein the second database is at a higher-hierarchical level of the first database.

10. The method according to claim 1, further comprising storing, by the computer, a new record for a new authorized individual into the one or more databases.

11. An access control system for controlling access at a facility site, the system comprising:

a camera capturing an image of a license plate of a vehicle approaching an access control point (ACP) of a facility site and transmitting the image of the license plate to an ACP server associated with the ACP;

an iris scanner capturing a scan of one or more individuals in the vehicle approaching the access control point and transmitting the scan to the ACP server;

a cache memory storing a record from the ACP server associated with the license plate to be matched to the one or more individuals based on the scan;

a site database of one more databases logically residing in a hierarchical architecture storing records of one or more enrolled entrants authorized to enter the facility site and associated with a license plate, wherein each enrolled entrant is uniquely identified by a scan of each individual'"'"'s iris; and

the ACP server searching the site database to retrieve a matching record associated with the license plate, wherein when the retrieved record of the license plate is not found in the site database, the ACP server searches the remaining databases of the one more databases that are at a higher-hierarchical level of the site databases for records matching the license plate for one or more deny access records of the license plate indicating an identified problem for granting access to the vehicle, and

wherein the ACP server automatically authorizes entry to the approaching vehicle responsive to matching the scan of the iris of each individual in the vehicle with the unique iris of an enrolled entrant and matching the license plate of the vehicle with the license plate associated with the enrolled entrant; and

where the ACP server denies access for the vehicle responsive to determining that the one or more retrieved deny access records indicate problems have been identified.

12. The system according to claim 11, further comprising an enterprise database storing an enrolled entrant authorized to enter the facility not in the site database.

13. The system according to claim 11, wherein the ACP server identifies a set of one or more characters on the license plate of the approaching vehicle.

14. The system according to claim 11, wherein the ACP server queries a crime database for an association with a crime using the license plate of the approaching vehicle.

15. The system according to claim 14, further comprising a local watch list database storing one or more license plates associated with one or more crimes in the crime database, wherein each license plate in the located watch list database is associated with a previous vehicle to approach the facility.

16. The system according to claim 11, the ACP server further comprising a gate arm controller actuating a gate arm obstructing a lane at the access control point, wherein the gate arm controller removes the gate arm responsive to authorizing entry to the approaching vehicle.