1 About SAFR Time and Attendance

This feature enables use of SAFR SCAN for Attendance (Check-In / Check-Out) tracking.

SAFR SCAN Time and Attendance feature allows the SAFR SCAN reader to be put into a mode where it can generate Check-in and Check-out events used to track attendance. The solution uses external switches connected to the SAFR SCAN Wiegand ports to allow a person to indicate if they are checking in or out. When used in this mode, SAFR SCAN does not operate as an access control reader and will not interact with an access control panel or trigger the relay switches to unlock a door.

When a person approaches, if their face is matched to an enrolled person, SAFR SCAN will wait for input from the user to Check-In or Check-Out the identified person. A person indicates their intention to check in or out by triggering one of two switches that are connected to SAFR SCAN. The input from the person will be immediately reflected on the screen. However, actual event report will be deferred until person’s face disappears from the screen. This will allow the user to make the correction to the input provided if needed without having the wrong input be registered on the server.

2 How it works

SAFR Time and Attendance feature requires 2 external push buttons that allow a person to indicate if they are checking in or checking out. These buttons are connected to SAFR SCAN’s Wiegand In (Check-in button) and Wiegand Out (Check-out button) terminal connections as we as SAFR SCAN’s ground connection.

When a person’s face appears:

  1. SAFR SCAN begins waiting for input from either the Check-in Button (Wiegand in) or Check-out button (Wiegand out).
  2. When it receives this signal triggered by pushing either the Check-in or Check-out Button, SAFR SCAN internally stores the choice.
  3. The device acknowledges their selection by making an audible sound and displaying a message on the screen.
  4. If he/she made a mistake, the person may change their selection by pressing the opposite button.
    1. SAFR SCAN then changes the choice. This can happen as many times as needed until person leaves the view.
  5. When the user leaves the view, SAFR SCAN ends the session and reports an Check-in or Check-out event to the SAFR Server.
    1. This may in turn trigger a report to your HR system that manages time and attendance.

Note: This feature cannot be used in conjunction with a PACS panel or an external card reader.

3 Configuring Attendance

3.1 Hardware Configuration

You will need two push buttons. A push button should close the circuit when the button is pressed and open the circuit when the button is released. A good option for this solution is an infrared touchless sensor. These types of buttons are touchless and allow the person checking in to just wave the hand in front of the button.

One button will be considered the Check-in Button and the other the Check-out Button. The buttons are identical in design but should be labeled and/or placed such that a person knows which one to trigger.

To connect the push buttons, do the following:

  1. Connect GROUND on both buttons to SAFR SCAN Ground
  2. Connect WIEG IN EXT0/D0 on SAFR SCAN to the Check-In Button
  3. Connect WIEG IN EXT1/D1 on SAFR SCAN to the Check-Out Button

3.2 Software Configuration

Enable the Time and Attendance buttons as follows:

  1. Open SAFR Desktop
  2. Open Video Feeds from Tools menu
  3. Chose Operation Settings from the “…” menu
  4. Click on the Attendance panel
  5. Set Attendance Mode to “Weigand Check-In and Check-Out” as shown below.
    • Wiegand must be disabled for this setting to be enabled. If not, you will be prompted to disable it.
  6. If the push buttons are connected, the feature is fully enabled and the system is ready for operation.

Graphical user interface, text, application Description automatically generated

4 Processing Attendance Records

There are two ways to access the attendance records. First is with the Events window. Events can be filtered and viewed through the events window on SAFR Desktop. Second is through export of data in one of two ways:

  1. Export data from SAFR Desktop Events Window
  2. Export data through REST APIs - either in real time or in batch

4.1 Export Data through Application

To export data from SAFR Desktop Events Window, simply use the filters to show the events of interest and chose export in toolbar. You can export event data and images into a single Excel file or export event data to a CSV file and images to a folder.

Event data can also be written to CSV format using SAFR Actions. Each event can be processed by SAFR Actions and written to a CSV file for scheduled processing.

4.2 Export Data through REST APIs

Attendance records can be exported through SAFR REST APIs. See SAFR Events Server API (CVEV) at https://docs.real.com/sdks.html for information on how to use SAFR Events REST APIs to retrieve attendance data. SAFR Web API (https://docs.real.com/api/Web_API.html) describes the process for using the REST APIs for extracting events either in real-time or in batch.

4.3 SAFR SCAN Event Retention

SAFR SCAN will retain events in the event of a loss of network. The device is capable of retaining up to 30,000 events locally on device if network is lost. When network is restored, all cached event data is uploaded to the server.

When in this mode, SCAN will record the event data and the face image from the event. The scene image is not persisted in order to save device space and increase capacity for number of events cached. When in this mode, attendance events are persisted to device storage. This is to ensure that if the device loses power during this time the events will not be lost.