Florida school district to pilot palm scanner in lunch room
06 April, 2012
category: Biometrics, Education
The Lee County School District in southwest Florida is the latest to experiment with palm scanners in an effort to move the lunch line along faster. Students currently have to key in their ID number. If they make a mistake, it can slow down the line.
The district hopes to test the program in an elementary, middle and high school before the end of this school year. After the trial period, the program could be implemented district-wide.
“Students can slow down the lunch line by miss-keying numbers, forgetting the numbers,” said Sonny Stelmacki, assistant director of the district’s nutrition services department. “We’ve also had issues with stolen or misused numbers.”
The palm scanner the district is considering using is twice as fast as the current system that uses key pads and swipe cards, school officials said. It eliminates security issues like students stealing and sharing ID numbers, losing their cards, or forgetting the numbers. The scanner is already being used by Pinellas County schools in the Tampa Bay area.
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