Americans have always loved high-tech gadgets. Whether it’s an elaborate crime being solved on CSI or James Bond using a laser-guided device to defeat the bad guys, high-tech is endlessly entertaining. But when it comes to real life – such as dealing with security at a condominium – high-tech devices are embraced only up to a point. Security-conscious condo associations like advanced technology, but it must pass muster on a number of levels.

No association wants to lay out scarce cash on security devices that only Hollywood producers could afford. Likewise, no owner wants to grapple with security that requires memorizing a 524-page manual and multiple passwords.

In today’s economy, security is still a priority but demand for high-tech devices is trending downmarket. While condos are still willing to buy and install high-tech security, their expectations have changed lately.

They’re now looking for designs based on proven technologies versus more trendy experimental ones. Unwilling to write a blank check for the latest and greatest, condo owners and boardsare looking at former cutting-edge technologies, frequently combined in innovative ways to create value.

For instance, in the area of access control, nothing is sexier than voice recognition or retinal scans. Who wouldn’t love barking out their name and having their front door spring open? But using fingerprint recognition to control access, while not as cutting-edge, turns out to pretty much do the same job, at a vastly cheaper price, under $300 a unit.

Bio-Metrics

Fingerprint access is usually deployedin three main sections: the entryways in the condo’s common area, front doors of individual units, and within the condo unit itself, according to James Childers, CEO of Biometrics Direct in Freeland, Washington.

Access control to the condo’s entrances, or its perimeter, is through a combination of a smart card or PIN and fingerprint authentication. Owners who have permission to enter the building are registered in the system by having their finger electronically scanned. That scan is not turned into a raw fingerprint, but a string of numbers that represent the print. Once a registered owner presses his or her finger for entry, an advanced algorithm performs an authentication process, done in milliseconds, and accurate to .00001 percent, according to Childers.

Installing fingerprint access to a condo’s exterior entrances costs about $1,000 a door, and needs to be done by a licensed electrician. The door also needs to be tied into the fire alarm system, to make it compliant with local codes, says Childers.

Fingerprint authentication at the unit owner’s door is done only using a fingerprint – skipping the smart card or PIN. The entire system is containedin a device that costs $249 and can be retrofitted into existing doors; it basically replaces the deadbolt.

Many unit owners are also setting up fingerprint access “zones” within their units, like their bedroom, which “limits access to certain parties,” says Childers. “Say you’re sharing your condo or want to have somebody staying for the weekend but you don’t want them to go through your stuff (which is locked in the bedroom).”

Other uses inside the condo for limited access zones can include art collectors or gun owners who want a dedicated room for security reasons, he says. Finally, an owner can set up a fingerprint-accessed “panic” or “safe room” to retreat to in case of an armed intruder or other danger.

Unit owners who have fingerprint recognition are finding that it increases both security and convenience, says Childers. Homeowners who have someone watch their home while they’reaway can “enroll” the house sitter by having them enter their fingerprint and then setting an expiration date after which the fingerprint no longer works. “If you want to have someone house-sit, you’re going to have to give them a key. They could make a copy. They could make multiple copies,” says Childers.

Childers says he uses the fingerprint enrollment to simplify access for family members who regularly visit him. “Your kids, your parents, your family members, you don’t have to give them a key. When everybody comes over to my house for Thanksgiving or Christmas, I don’t have to wait up until 2 in the morning until Uncle Joey shows up. His fingerprints are already in my lock and when he showsup he already knows where the bedroom is. It really does simplify it.”

Other owners enjoy not having to bother with house keys, says Childers. “If you’re going for a run in the morning, or go out for a bagel, why even carry a key? It simplifies your life.”

When maintenance or repair staff need to enter a unit, they are typically let in by the on-site property manager or maintenance supervisor, whose fingerprint can be enrolled before the entry. The property manager will still need to keep keys, for backup or override in the common areas, but the number of keys in circulation will be greatly reduced and under tighter control, says Childers. In addition, he says, the fingerprint access locks keep a record of who entered the condo and the exact time they stayed, which can be quite “helpful” in crime control.

License Plate Recognition

License plate recognition (LPR) is a pairing of high-tech video cameras with law enforcement crime databases that has the potential to immediately notify police if a wanted criminal enters the condo grounds. The marriage of existingtechnologies has created a new tool that is currently being used mostly by law enforcement. But community associations, like Glen Oaks Condo-minium in Boca Raton, Florida, are starting to deploy it also.

Anchoring the system is a high-powered camera that discreetly monitors the condo entrance and, when a car enters, produces a color still image of the vehicle, and “reads” its license plate. That visual is fed into a sophisticated onboard processor that converts it into recognizable numbers and letters. The numbers and letters can then be compared to a police database, lookingfor “hits” – stolen cars, sex offenders or wanted criminals.

The system, which runs between $10,000 and $100,000 depending on the number of vehicle entrances, has a number of advantages over storing continuous video on Digital Video Recorders (DVRs), says Trace Trylko, media and public relations coordinator for NDI Technologies, Inc. in Longwood, Florida. “If an incident occurs, police or on-site security can scan endless hours of DVR video, and still may not be able to make out the license plate number due to rain, fog or darkness,” he says. “Here, the high-tech camera, day or night, is going to capture the license plate number,” saysTrylko, noting that storage requirements for LPR data are minimal.

The kind of record produced by LPRis uniquely useful to law enforcement and on-site security personnel, says Trylko. Citing a real-life example, Trylko relates, “A car was broken into and the credit cards were used at 4:30 in the morning. Well, law enforcement wanted to see who’s been in the community between midnight and four. They looked at the plates and one of them matches our suspect.

“We know the particular make, model and license plate. He was in the community at 3:30 and he was the only car that entered. And we have this car as a suspect in another case. And the driver of that car was on the surveillance video at the convenience store where he tried to use the stolen credit cards. Then they (police) can piece it together,” says Trylko. “For thecrime analyst, it’s a tremendous tool.”

There are two ways the system can be used – in real-time or later, to reconstruct a crime. Glen Oaks Condominium, an early-adopter LPR community, has set up an agreement with local law enforcement to access license plate data to solve crimes after they’re committed. “Their arrangementis to store the data for law enforcement access on a server, which law enforcement has access to (after a crime),” says Trylko.

Because the system’s implementation is so new in condominiums, future agreements between police and community associations and how the data willbe used – in real time or not – would have to be worked out individually in a still-evolving arena, says Trylko.

“There would have to be an arrange-ment between the community and the law enforcement agency… It would vary community to community and law enforcement agency to law enforce-mentagency,” says Trylko.

Although LPR’s implementation in U.S. community associations is in its early stages, Trylko says the system has been perfected over decades of use in Europe, where it performs multiple duties, ranging from assessing tolls and parking tickets to tracking terror suspects.

Privacy advocates in Europe and theU.S. have raised concerns over LPR’s misuse as an information-gathering tool for Big Brother. Those concerns have been somewhat mitigated by safeguards to keep tight control over the data, which includes the comings and goings of average citizens. “It’s not like the HOA president is going to be able to poke through license plate numbers,” says Trylko. Auto theft victims whose cars were quickly recovered due to LPR have expressed almost unanimous support for the technology.

Looking to the future, Trylko foresees many other condos deploying LPR. “I think this association in South Florida is just the first of what will be many. You don’t want to act defensively to a problem, you want to act proactively.”

Video Analytics

Video analytics takes the old model of a bored security guard before an array of video monitors and replaces the guard with a super-smart computer. Dubbed video analytics or “advanced video monitoring,” the brainy computer is able to scan a community association’s video feed 24/7 and notifyhuman security personnel when it spots suspicious activities, according to Brian McCabe, chief information officer with Wackenhut Corporation Security Services, a national firm.

“If you have a camera and software you can determine certain types of events,” says McCabe. “If there’s a bunch of kids loitering, we can pick that up. If there’s a crowd of people within a certain distance (to a building), it will set off an alarm.”

While the system is not foolproof, it doesn’t waste a human’s time with false alarms, like those generated by motion detectors, says McCabe, “Video analytics has the intelligence to distinguish between a person or an animal, leaves blowing in the yard, or a vehicle driving,” he says.

If the computer should determine that criminal activity could be taking place, an alarm sounds and a guard at the newly-opened monitoring and data center in Burlington, Massachusetts, will be presented with a seven-second high resolution video to determine what is going on. If the guard decides more information is needed to sort out the event, he or she can scroll backand forth through the 24/7 video to make sense of what’s happening.

If the guard monitoring the video feed decides an event is ongoing, he will immediately notify the on-site guard, who can respond and possibly summon local law enforcement. In addition to video analytics, Wackenhutalso has an additional way of leveraging its technology though “virtual guard tours.” These tours – typically done once an hour – involve a remote live guard viewing a sequence of different cameras to simulate walking through the condo property, covering the parking lot, lobbies, elevators, pools, etc.

By combining virtual guard tours with conventional guards, condos can both improve coverage and save money, says McBride.

“Let’s say we have a (live) guard there that does four rounds a night and thenwe augment him with a virtual guard tour. So we do both, we do more frequent tours and we do this with less people. So we can do more with less with the technology,” he says.

The hardware requirements of the system are also set up to do more with less. New cameras with built-in DVRs and analytics software range from $1,500 to $1,700, but existing analog cameras can be retrofitted to work with the new system, says McBride. “We can plug in a third-partydevice that integrates the (analog) camera with video analytics.”

Elaborating on the system requirements, McBride says most properties can get excellent coverage with a mix of new and old cameras. “It doesn’t require customers to rip out everything they bought and replace them with all new stuff. That’s not practical. So we want to protect their past investments and augment that with newer technology.”

That combination of old and new technology, cutting-edge with legacy equipment is a formula that many security-conscious condominiums can embrace these days.

Jim Douglass is the managing editor of New England Condominium magazine.