Regional Transportation District (RTD) of Denver

Background: Regional Transportation District (RTD) of Denver is a public transportation district that provides transit services to 8 counties and 44 municipalities, with 85 million annual passenger trips aboard light rail, bus, access-a-Ride and call-n-Ride services. With 1300 buses, 16 miles of light rail and another 19 miles to be added within a year, the RTD’s Treasury handles millions of dollars in collected transit fees per year.

Challenges: The solution operates on a closed network for Physical Access to a secure section of the facility.  There are approximately 30 people with the clearance level to access the Treasury location which secure monetary assets.  The main issue for the customer was dealing with the risks associated with lost or stolen ID cards and identity fraud.  

Issues: Identity fraud is the main issue for RTD: due to having a facility which secures a significant amount of assets provides for an attractive target for security compromise.  Biometrics is a very effective method to increase security related to identity fraud.  RTD needed a technology that not only added the security, but also could be integrated into their existing infrastructure.

There are typically three ways to authenticate or prove an identity to a system or a person.

• Something you have – like an ID card.

• Something you know - such as a PIN number.

• Something you are - a biometric such as facial features, fingerprints etc.

When two or more of these are used together for an identification decision it is called multi factor authentication. The RTD solution using dual factor, card plus biometric, offers a very secure solution. 

Solution provided by A4Vision: The installed solution utilizes the Vision Access 3D Face Reader and the 3Di application for enrollment and template distribution. The solution is integrated with RTD’s existing access control system. A4Vision products are built specifically to be quick and easy to integrate legacy systems simplifying deployment. The Vision Access 3D face reader interfaces with the legacy hardware via Wiegand protocol for transmitting door open or lock signals and providing an audit trail in the host system.
The A4Vision system is working in verification mode (1:1) at RTD for dual factor authentication adding a higher level of security to this protected area. In verification mode the A4 system first accepts a proximity card and then will reference the 3D face template stored with that card number in a Database. The system then verifies that the person belongs to the card by matching the stored template to the person standing in front of the 3D Face reader. The A4 System performs this matching process in less than one second for very fast throughput.   It is this combination of security and speed that was the ideal fit for RTD.

Summary: A4Vision readers perform both verification and identification in real-time; accommodate variable angles, motion, and changing light conditions, including night; and provide a completely passive, non-invasive mode of identification with consistently high rates of accuracy. The Vision Access 3D Face Reader applied by RTD achieves unmatched sub-second processing speeds in biometric scanning.   They are now able to offer this higher level of security without compromising employee convenience.

A4Vision
840 West California Ave
Suite 200
Sunnyvale, CA 94086 USA
Tel: 1-408 446-1133

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