For many years now proximity readers have been king in the access control world. For almost as many years we have heard that smart cards and biometrics were “just around the corner.” Well, integrators are now seeing the bend in the road, even if it is one they are building themselves.
Beyond biometrics and smart cards, other new reader technologies such as wireless and edge devices, are also generating excitement from integrators for their potential and from end users for their affordability. And virtually everybody is talking about near field communications (NFC), which isn’t here yet but holds huge potential to change the access control card and reader market in the future.