At the beginning of this year TAB Systems Inc. launched a new biometric unit for access control, time & attendance and building/home automation called smarti DIADEM.

The new unit has already received its first international award in April when it was short-listed by BSIA (British Security Industry Association) as one of six best new access control products for the IFSEC 2008 Security Industry Awards. And at the end of July 2008 the new DIADEM unit received its second international acknowledgement. It was nominated to be one of the six finalists in the category "Security Innovation of the Year" at the Security Excellence Awards 2008. These awards are organized by Security Management Today, Security Installer and info4security. The awards ceremony will be held in London on the 9th of October.

Access control is increasingly moving toward identification by who you are rather than by what key or card you may carry or PIN you might know. Smarti is set to meet this challenge. It identifies people by who they are (face and voice recognition) and not by what ID card or key they carry. The biometric information about an individual is saved as part of a swift enrolment process. Smarti uses this information to recognize a person and then acts according to pre-defined instructions that the system controller sets up. These might include saving a photo of the person in the event log, and then opening a door, turning on a light, sending an e-mail or SMS etc, or a combination of such actions.

An additional advantage of this product is the integration of multiple additional features (video intercom, video & IP phone, video messaging, video surveillance.) into one compact device. Smarti is also completely protocol independent and can therefore be used to control almost any kind of electronic device (different sensors, electronic locks, lights, alarm systems, finger print scanners, RF ID readers...).

The new DIADEM unit is fan-less for quiet operation. It has an aluminium front casing which is IP 65 compliant and is meant for indoor and outdoor use. It is in-wall or on-wall mountable. The inbuilt IR CCTV camera and IR LED lights provide highly reliable identification in all lighting conditions. The unit is also equipped with an 8" colour touch screen, motion detector, microphone, speakers, Intel Centrino processor, built in storage and internal memory. The integrated communication ports and relay I/O controller can be used to control lights, electronic locks, alarms, sensors and other electrical devices.