In Greek mythology, there was a creature that few people have heard of, but who is of the utmost importance for the ancient history of mankind: Cerberus, or Kerberos in Greek, the three-headed dog that guarded the gates of the kingdom of Hades, god of the underworld, so that the dead could not leave and the living could not enter.
Ring any bells? In addition to the concept of the watcher, one could also say that Cerberus was the first access control system in history.
Access of people and cars in ancient times
For thousands of years, humans have wanted to control people's access to their property in order to be safe, to be able to live more peacefully and to prevent burglary.
In ancient civilisations, constructions such as the tombs of Egypt were erected with special access points (sliding stones that concealed the entrances and winding corridors that served as detours) to prevent the pharaohs' treasures from being stolen.
Furthermore, medieval cities were built behind great walls and gates supervised by guards and sentries who allowed (or denied) access to people. In mansions and castles there were people who also guarded access.
Since then and up to now, the technology of access control solutions has only evolved and matured.
It was not so long ago that these types of operations started to become more sophisticated and passwords or identification cards started to be requested.
Adapt technology to access control
With the introduction of technology, more complex systems were developed, such as magnetic stripe and/or PIN cards, which gave organisations more control over the management and tracking of people entering and leaving their premises. In addition, it was easy to grant and revoke access rights without changing the locks, yet they were also easy to clone and forge.
It is true that these solutions have evolved enormously in the 21st century, but the principle is the same: to control whether or not one or more people can enter a specific area.
Going back to mythology, Cerberus was defeated several times, each time by simply putting the dog to sleep using honey cakes, river water, music... Nowadays, 'defeating' access control systems is practically impossible as they are equipped with advanced recognition technologies, capable of reading fingerprints, faces or irises.
Thanks to new algorithms, identities can be verified with a simple selfie and ID photo taken from a smartphone. Simple, fast and remotely. This entails significant progress in Access Control, as it speeds up the management and registration of people, ensuring the system fully authenticates the person they claim to be.
'Putting the access reader to sleep' is far more complex than what has been depicted in films over the years. For example, in the case of fingerprint reader technology, it supports Live Finger Detection (LFD), or in the case of facial recognition devices, 'liveness detection' systems based on the detection of natural movements.
On the other hand, readers are constantly monitored against any tampering and/or sabotage attempts that may occur and send alarm messages to the system in real time.
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It is impossible to predict the future, but it is moving so fast that soon we won't even need credentials — artificial intelligence software will accept or deny the access of people without them even realising that they are being monitored.
The only limit is to achieve the necessary balance between technology and the protection of personal data rights.
