Contactless Mobile Authentication Improves Health and Hygiene

Shared touch screens can create opportunities for pathogen transmission. Contactless mobile authentication solutions are cleaner, faster and more convenient.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created a renewed concern around hygiene in shared workspaces and public environments. While most people are now used to slathering on hand sanitizer after touching shared objects and surfaces, reducing the number of things we have to touch is even better. A contactless authentication solution that uses a smartphone and a mobile credentialing app eliminates a touch point, improving hygiene while also speeding up the authentication process.

Eliminating the Touch Screen for Authentication

Many traditional authentication technologies require users to physically touch a shared screen—and often, gloves must be removed for operation of the touch screen. For example:

• Password or PIN systems
• Biometric fingerprint or palmprint applications

Shared touch screens increase the risk of transmitting a pathogen that can live on hard surfaces, including many cold and flu germs. By contrast, smartphone credentialing is fast, easy and contactless. There is no need to touch a screen to enter information and no need to dig into a wallet or swipe a magstripe card. Users simply wave the smartphone and go. That’s a real benefit in a pandemic or an ordinary cold-and-flu season.

Contactless smartphone credentialing works for all kinds of access control and user authentication applications, such as kiosks, shared office printers, vending machines and elevators.

Contactless Authentication for Healthcare

A contactless solution is also a benefit for medical environments such as hospitals or care homes. Contactless authentication eliminates a touchpoint that can become a vector for the spread of pathogens, including those responsible for dangerous hospital-acquired infections.

Mobile credentialing can be used throughout the hospital environment, including:

• Elevator and restricted area access
• Medical device user authentication
• Vending machines and lockers

Mobile Authentication: Safe, Flexible and Convenient

Mobile authentication solutions offer significant advantages for both end-users and administrators, now and in the future. They improve health, safety and convenience with a fast, contactless authentication solution. And they meet the needs of the IT department for security and easy management.

Since most employees and consumers are already carrying a smartphone, it’s easy to get started with mobile authentication—no need to issue ID cards. With the right reader, mobile credentials can be easily added to an existing RFID solution and even used in parallel with RFID card technologies.

ELATEC readers are ready for the mobile revolution. They can be used with nearly any RFID transponder technology as well as smartphone applications powered by Bluetooth® Low Energy (BLE) or Near-Field Communication (NFC). And with a powerful API and remote programming capabilities, they can be adapted to a wide variety of applications and installed practically anywhere.