innDex + Touchbyte plot contactless construction site

It’s simple, really. Open your space, with your face. Well, at least that’s the dream of these two companies; innDex, an emerging leader in construction site digitisation and automation; and Touchbyte, a pioneer in facial recognition technology.

TouchByte, in partnership with innDex, successfully completed the first of its pilot projects this month; integrating a facial recognition access control unit for construction and facilities management into a construction site in North London.

It’s called Facentry.

Facentry is a contactless, secure, access control system, which uses facial recognition to grant users access to a space. This system negates the need for access cards, biometric hand scanners and, most importantly, paperwork. To both company’s knowledge, this is the first facial recognition access control unit developed completely in the UK. This is a major step forward as we start to look beyond the Covid-19 pandemic.

This project was made possible with the help of Innovate UK, the government agency, which provided TouchByte with a grant. Innovate UK drives productivity and economic growth by supporting businesses to develop and realise the potential of new ideas. TouchByte was awarded nearly £50,000 to develop a prototype in response to the pandemic; using contactless facial recognition technology to grant access to spaces.

Construction sites are an obvious place to use this technology, because of the necessity to control access and maintain records of who is on site. Across the UK, construction sites have had to revert to a manual entry process, which brings its own health and safety implications as well as additional administrative costs.

Jeremy Sneller, founder and managing director of Touchbyte, said: “It’s an incredibly exciting development. We partnered with innDex, a construction workforce management software company, due to their developing client base, their energy and enthusiasm and their focus on disrupting the traditional methods of managing a workforce on a building site.”

Aaron Vousden, founder and director of index, added: “It was fantastic to complete the installation and first pilot project with innDex. It is the culmination of several months of hard work by both innDex and Touchbyte. This is an important step towards changing the way in which we manage construction sites and facilities.”

TouchByte and innDex are paving the way to a frictionless, touch-free future. You can learn more about the project and the benefits of facial recognition by reading this blog post.