Who are we and what we were going for
We are a multinational group of software developers and system engineers with the ambition to lift entries to the 21st century. We had been given the opportunity to work together by an Erasmus+ scholarship.
Gracjan 🇵🇱, Miguel Ángel 🇪🇸, Antonio Jesús 🇪🇸, Rafa 🇪🇸, Phil 🇩🇪 & Antonio 🇪🇸
Design Thinking and proof of concept
Students frequently leave and return to school each break. But every time they leave, they have to prove being over 18 to the security staff. To prove their age, they have to show an ID-Card personally and start waiting in a row. The process of proofing their age takes several seconds for each person every day and multiplies with each student. In addition, there must be security staff checking each ID card manually a dozen times a day.
Ideation & Design Thinking
In the process of finding solutions, we used the Walt Disney method to give space for the most interesting features but also validate different approaches.
An Application (App), that can hold the ID card digitally and form a certificate with an age indicator could prove one’s age via NFC in seconds, without including manual checking by a security staff. The front door may be equipped with an NFC or QR reader, that verifies the students and their right age.
Furthermore, the App could function as a transmitter and receiver for quick validation at a nightclub’s door and show a quick sign for passing or excluding to the doorperson (security staff).
Prototyping
For proof of concept, we went for a smaller scale and designed a one-side authentication box. The box is equipped with an Arduino, LCD-Display, and NFC reader. For the authentication, a listed NFC ID has to be recognized before a model of the school’s gate would be opened. In the normal state, the LCD Display will show show “Hola Amigo!, Waiting for NFC” until an NFC radio is held. If the NFC ID is accepted, the LCD Display writes “ student is 18 +” and the gate shall open. In the case access is denied, the LCD will show “Student is not 18” and a red light will brighten up.
The yellow LED shall always be lit up to the sign being in service.
Approaches
In the idea of creating an authentication tool for easily proofing age limits, we wanted to create a valid certificate based on someone’s unique ID card and an Application that quickly proofs the requested limit.
In a further and more advanced implementation, the was an Arduino or Raspberry Pi at the school’s gate with an NFC reader on each side and an ethernet connection to the school network. In the authentication process, the Arduino/ Pi will check the Certificate via NFC with the access list in the school’s internal database.
If the local authentication works, the system may be used for age limits in other facilities, supermarkets, or nightclubs, without sharing sensitive personal data or showing ID cards manually.
