At this year’s Olympic Games in Athens, Bundesdruckerei GmbH and NEC Deutschland GmbH were supplying the German House with a biometric accreditation system.
The 4,500 accreditations were the Olympic athletes, media representatives, officials and staff. On registering, accredited visitors received a biometric ID card giving them access to the German House. To get the card, each person had to prove his or her identity once by showing an official travel document. The biometric data was collected locally by means of a specially developed data-capture system which stores an image of the person’s fingerprint. The ‘live’ fingerprint was then compared with the stored data at a verification station. If they match, admission is granted. The accreditation system consisted of three data-collection points in front of the German House and verification stations in the entrance area; these were linked with a database server.
What they say
Michael Schaub, managing director of Bundesdruckerei International Services GmbH (BIS), says: “Our years of experience in the field of biometric security systems enabled us to realize this project. Biometric verification systems have been making steady progress for several years and are being used increasingly not only for government applications such as border controls, but also at large-scale events.” The German National Olympic Committee has set up a German House at every Olympic Games since 1988. It is the central meeting place for sportspeople, officials, business partners and media representatives during the Games.
