Registers – Systems controlled by data bearing records – Credit or identification card systems
Reexamination Certificate
1998-03-05
2001-11-13
Frech, Karl D. (Department: 2876)
Registers
Systems controlled by data bearing records
Credit or identification card systems
C235S382500, C235S380000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06315198
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a key cabinet for equipping an access control system. It also relates to an access control method and system using this key cabinet.
In current access control system, the management of access keys used by authorized persons is increasingly tending to include control of access to one or more key cabinets. In fact, in association with a main access control by badges, a key cabinet constitutes a useful complement for managing additional doors not managed by badge readers. There are already known, in particular from the documents FR2721734 and FR2717932, installations for the selective distribution and for the controlled retrieval of objects, of keys in particular.
The document U.S. Pat. No. 5038023 discloses a system for storing and monitoring keys provided with bar coded tags in a drawer.
The document EP0097538 discloses a system for managing a key panel, comprising means for successively reading and storing combinations and means for detecting the presence or absence of keys on said panel.
These installations make it possible to control and issue keys which are kept locked on a distribution panel and are released only after validation and authentication of an issue request. The key cabinets thus managed can be connected to a computer system and be associated with access and intrusion controls.
But when it is a matter of completing existing access control systems, in particular large systems, in practice it proves difficult to make the data related to the monitoring of the movements of keys within a key cabinet consistent with the flow of access control data generated within a pre-existing access control system. The key cabinet is therefore often perceived as a specific peripheral and the data associated with it are also subjected to specific processing. This gives rise to additional costs in terms of the installation and the writing of specific interface software.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The purpose of the invention is to overcome these disadvantages by proposing a key cabinet for equipping an access control system comprising a plurality of devices for reading data associated with personal identification means, controller means connected to each of said reader devices and to access control management means in particular comprising decision making means for controlling accesses and means for retaining a trace of the events occurring in this system, this cabinet comprising means adapted to receive a set of keys and means for detecting any change in the state of the keys contained in said cabinet.
According to the invention, the key cabinet is arranged to be inserted between a reader device and the access control system via said controller means associated with said reader device, and further comprises means for detecting any change in state of the keys contained in said cabinet and means for generating a virtual badge number corresponding to any change of state, this virtual badge thin being transferred to decision making means.
In this way, a key cabinet according to the invention can be installed within an existing access control system in substitution for a simple badge reader, and the changes of state of the keys contained in this cabinet, by being rendered equivalent to virtual badges, will be able to be stored, filed and processed in the same way as any other events occurring in the access control system. It is therefore no longer necessary to provide difficult adaptations of the hardware and of the software when it is desired to install a key cabinet within an access control system.
The access control means preferably comprise a device for reading personal identification means constituting a real badge and the key cabinet according to the invention furthermore comprises means for transferring this real badge to decision making means within the access control system.
In a practical embodiment of the invention, the means for receiving keys comprise key contacts and the change of state detection means comprise means for examining the state of said key contacts. These key contacts are preferably arranged in a matrix pattern.
In a first embodiment of a key cabinet according to the invention, furthermore comprising a door with controlled opening, the means for controlling the opening of this door are located outside of said cabinet.
In a second embodiment, means for controlling the opening of the door of the cabinet are directly integrated with the latter.
According to another aspect of the invention, there is proposed a system for the control of access to sites or equipments, comprising:
personal identification means held by a number of persons,
a plurality of devices for reading information transmitted by the identification means,
decision making means for commanding or not commanding access for a person in response to an access request,
means for retaining a trace of any event occurring in this system, and
central means for managing the controls and of access request.
This access control system is characterized in that it furthermore comprises at least one key cabinet according to the invention, this key cabinet being connected to the access control system by insertion between a personal identification means reader device and controller means associated to said reader device. It furthermore comprises means for sorting, from among all of the events whose traces are retained, those events relating to the reader device associated with the key cabinet.
According to yet another aspect of the invention, there is proposed an access control method used in the system according to the invention, comprising a test for the detection of personal identification means carried out in order to control access to the keys contained in the key cabinet according to the invention, characterized in that it furthermore comprises an examination of key contacts, a generation of a virtual badge number corresponding to a change in state of a key, and a transfer of this virtual badge to the decision making means.
In the case of detection of personal identification means, the method according to the invention furthermore comprises a transfer of a real badge associated with these personal identification means to the decision making means.
Furthermore, an operator of the access control system can easily carry out a sort, amongst all the events which have occurred in the system and which are retained in the access control management means, of the events associated with the virtual badges issued from a key cabinet in to the invention.
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Jerry Levine, “Key Systems' Security Key Dispenser”, Locksmith Ledger International, pp. 17, 20 and 22, vol. 55, No. 7, Jun. 1, 1995.
De Rasse Christophe
Lenglart Pascal
Alcea
Frech Karl D.
Young & Thompson
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