Featuring Bluetooth

• By Deb Spitler
• Jan 01, 2015

Vanderbilt University in Nashville has earned many distinctions including Princeton Review’s top ranking for colleges with the happiest students. In an effort to serve its students, the university recently conducted a pilot program with HID Global of Austin, Texas in which approximately 15 participants used their smartphones to open doors at one or more of six possible campus entry points, including one parking garage.

Entry points were equipped with mobileenabled iCLASS SE readers that were configured to work with existing iCLASS smart cards as well as HID Global’s Mobile IDs. The pilot program validated the use of smartphones as a convenient and compelling new way to open doors with a “tap” or using the company’s patented “Twist and Go” gesture technology for opening doors and gates from a distance.

Vanderbilt University’s pilot was implemented using HID Mobile Access, which supports Bluetooth Smart and includes Mobile IDs, Mobile Apps, mobile-enabled iCLASS SEÒ readers, and its HID Secure Identity Services portal for provisioning and revoking Mobile IDs to a variety of Apple and Android mobile devices.

“A critical element of HID Mobile Access is its ease of issuing, managing and revoking Mobile IDs to smartphones, and the pilot results reflect our achievement in creating a user-friendly experience for customers via our HID Secure Identity Services portal,” said Anthony Ball, senior vice president, Identity Access Management with HID Global. “The university provided positive feedback on the Mobile ID issuance process, citing that the portal made it fairly straightforward and provisioning was fast and easy. The university’s system administrators particularly liked how they could see the status of the invitation and each device all the way through the registration and provisioning process.”

Vanderbilt University already uses CBORD’s CS Access solution with integrated VertX access control panels from HID Global. CS Access is a fully integrated component of the CS Gold campus card solution in use on campus. No changes were required to the CBORD system in order to facilitate the use of Mobile IDs on smartphones for access. Participants used their own smartphones in the pilot to include Apple iPhone 4S, 5, 5C and 5S devices, and Android-based Samsung Galaxy S4 and Mini 3S handsets.

“Vanderbilt University is a long-time CBORD client with a very innovative campus card and integrated security program,” said Max Steinhardt, president of CBORD. “Bluetooth Smart is a powerful new technology making the student experience more convenient and secure. We’re really pleased to partner with Vanderbilt and HID Global in this exciting pilot program to further demonstrate the value of mobile credentials in the university environment.”

In a survey of Vanderbilt pilot participants, respondents cited convenience as the top attribute of HID Mobile Access, since their smartphones are always with them and they are less likely to lose them as compared to their access card.

Respondents further pointed out the benefit of using their phone as a backup in cases where their cards were lost or stolen. Pilot participants indicated they absolutely loved using HID Global’s “Twist and Go” gesture technology to open the garage parking gate as they drove up to the reader, including the convenience of not even having to roll down their window as they approached. In addition, they validated the efficiency and simplicity of installing and registering the HID Mobile App, citing that it required five minutes or less to complete the process, and it was a selfexplanatory and intuitive experience. Respondents also stated that HID Mobile Access is an innovative alternative to access cards.

For new buildings, Vanderbilt University will install iCLASS SE readers so they can leverage the valuable new capabilities of mobile access in the future, while still retaining interoperability with legacy card technologies.

This article originally appeared in the issue of .