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The following sections provide detail on the various configuration features you can take advantage of to set up Entrinsic Connect to work for your precise scenario.
The Entrinsic kiosk can be configured in multiple ways with many different uses. By combining the powerful features of multiple kiosks working together, the Multi Tenant feature, ANPR, Notifications and Bluetooth Relay, you can effectively set up a comprehensive visitor access system for a wide variety of scenarios, including:
The following sections allow you to configure your system to cater for any of the above scenarios. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us and we will help you.
Whilst the simple use case is to have a single entry kiosk to a property, there are many scenarios where you might want to have multiple kiosks, as follows:
In the case of PINs, Number Plates and Aliases (applicable to multi-tenant mode, as below) you may share the settings across devices without having to enter them for each.
A typical example would be the ANPR feature. You might want to set up 4 devices all acting as ANPR readers as follows: you could have one that opens gate 1, and then further inside your estate, another gate. On the second gate you might want 3 cameras all looking for vehicles - perhaps to maximise the chances of a successful number pate recognition. In this scenario, you only have to maintain one list of number plates - they can be shared across all devices. The same applies to PINs and Aliases.
In all cases, you can connect on demand to the video feed, thereby enabling CCTV wherever a kiosk is situated.
The ANPR functionality is a powerful feature to allow you to initiate the opening of your gates or barrier in response to vehicles arriving at your property. To configure the feature, click Device Settings and navigate to the ANPR tab:
To enable the scanning of ANPR, you simply select 'Enable ANPR'. This is also where you can optionally enable 'Aliases', more information about which is described in the Multi Tenant (Alias) mode in the next section.
You may adjust the movement sensitivity. It's important not to set this too high, as there is a quota of ANPR requests you can do each day. Also, continuously sending image data to the ANPR service can consume a lot of your bandwidth. Setting it in the middle of the slide is usually sufficient.
To configure which vehicle number plates are detected, you do this through the 'Number Plates' feature from the main navigation.
The concept of 'Sharing' is an important feature. If you have multiple devices (kiosks), it makes sense to share the number plates across all of them. The only time you wouldn't want to share is if you have one device monitoring one set of vehicle number plates and another monitoring another completely different set.
Professional and Enterprise users may enable the 2-factor verification feature. This is designed so that visitors must have a secondary confirmation before the gate is opened. This happens in one of two ways:
By User
To configure a number plate to require user verification, pick a user from the 'Optional 2-step verification user' dropdown menu. When this option is selected, the selected user, which must have the Entrinsic Kiosk app, is sent a notification asking them to verify the incoming ANPR request. Using the app, the user can see the video feed from the ANPR device, and allow or deny entry.
This is used when you want a particular person to verify and allow or deny access to all people visiting.
By Mobile
To configure a number plate to require user verification, type a mobile phone number (in the format +447123456789) in the 'Optional 2-step verification mobile' text box. In this mode, a text message is sent to the number specified to ask them to confirm that the visitor can gain access. The person receiving the text must send a response back (e.g. Y or Yes) within 30 seconds in order for the gates to open.
This mode is typically used where you want a simple way for a person to verify themselves. Typically you would set the mobile number to be that of the actual visitor.
Kiosks can be configured to act as a multi-tenant entry device, allowing users to select a particular person, property or business to notify that they are waiting.
This is useful if you are using your kiosk in scenarios of a multi-tenant business with shared doors, a parking barrier shared with many tenants, a gated community, a golf club, student accommodation, an apartment block and so on.
Administrators of the kiosk can set up as many ‘aliases’ as required (based on subscription level), and each alias can have one or more users associated with them. An example is a building with 10 apartments and a single kiosk at the entry. Visitors can press the ‘Visitor’ button and be presented with a list of apartments, i.e. ‘Apartment 1, Apartment 2 etc’. Each apartment has potentially multiple people using the Entrinsic Connect app to respond to visitors wanting access; each can be notified of their own visitor and can respond and let the visitor in as required.
In addition to the interactive kiosk, people can gain access to property through a shared gate, barrier or door via their vehicle number plate being recognised (ANPR) through the kiosk camera (or an additional ‘non-interactive’ kiosk being in use), or a PIN entry. This means no manual interaction is required between the visitor and responder(s). In these cases, administrators can optionally pair a number plate or PIN with an alias. This way, a particular number plate recognition can notify the users associated with that alias that the gate was opened for them. An example is where a tradesperson entering a shared gate with a preconfigured vehicle number plate can notify the relevant people with whom they are working for that they have arrived.
In the case of PINs, they work the same way. If a PIN has been associated with a particular alias, users associated with that alias will be notified of the successful PIN entry and gate opening. Examples are a cleaner arriving on foot to a particular property; on entering their PIN, the family they are visiting are duly notified.
Setting up multiple aliases can be done by firstly clicking on 'Aliases' on the left hand navigation panel. From here, you may add multiple aliases (depending on your subscription level). For each Alias, you can decide which users are notified when that visitor arrives, be it via the interactive panel, a successful PIN entry or an ANPR reading.
There may be a case that a particular person or group of people should be notified when particular PINs are used or Number Plates recognised, however you do not want those people/groups to be selectable on the kiosk (assuming an interactive kiosk is also in use for the same kiosk), in which case you can elect to hide that particular group from the kiosk.
An important concept to reiterate is that the kiosk is intrinsically shared amongst all users connected as responders (or, of course) admins. That means if a visitor arrives at the kiosk to visit Bob in Flat 10, it’s possible for Sue in Flat 4 to be attempting to connect to the kiosk to view its CCTV view. This is a potential clash, and for large scale deployments where you have many potential responders all grouped into houses/apartments/businesses you should only allow ad-hoc video (CCTV) for selected users or admins (rather than everyone), a setting you can change in the relevant User details, within Users section of the Web Portal.
Entrinsic is designed to allow gates, barriers, doors, or anything that supports either Call-To-Open, Text-To-Open or the switching of any electrical circuit to trigger an action (with the help of the Entrinsic-recommended bluetooth relay).
There are three ways to open your gate, door or barrier, and the option you choose will depend on the situation.
In this configuration, the Entrinsic system will initiate a telephone call to the number specified. This called Voice-To-Open and will automatically open the gate, door, or barrier if a GSM sim card is already configured to accept calls and open the entryway. You must ensure your Voice-To-Open system will accept calls from the Entrinsic phone number, details of which can be obtained on request.
Once you have saved the settings, you are able to open the gate, door or barrier through the app, when the kiosk successfully reads a vehicle number plate through the ANPR feature, or if a PIN entry is successful.
In this configuration, called 'Text-To-Open', an SMS text message is sent to the number specified under the 'Gate Phone Number' field with the message you define. Many systems will open a gate, door or barrier with a simple message such as 'OPEN' or another special code or password. Simply type the correct message that will open your particular entryway. You must ensure your Text-To-Open system will accept SMS messages from the Entrinsic phone number, details of which can be obtained on request.
Once you have saved the settings, you are able to open the gate, door or barrier through the app, when the kiosk successfully reads a vehicle number plate through the ANPR feature, or if a PIN entry is successful.
You can open your gate, door or barrier with a bluetooth relay. The relay should be wired into your gate system, and must be done by a professional (although is very simple and straightforward). Once it is wired in, and within 10m of your kiosk, you can connect the Entrinsic Kiosk app to the relay. When you start the Entrinsic Connect Kiosk app (or restart it, by forcibly closing and restarting it), you will be able to pair the relay with your kiosk by following a few simple steps. Once it is paired, you are able to open the gate, door or barrier through the app, when the kiosk successfully reads a vehicle number plate through the ANPR feature, or if a PIN entry is successful.
The relay is available from Amazing for less than $20 (USD). To obtain the details, Professional or Enterprise customers can contact us, and we will provide the details for you to make an order.
More details on this option can be found in the next section.
The Bluetooth relay can be used to switch electrical devices. Typically, this is to open a gate, door or barrier, however it can be used for anything you wire your relay to. One kiosk can be connected to one relay. However multiple devices can be chained to trigger multiple relays simultaneously (see below).
Entrinsic Connect supports a bluetooth relay to open gates, doors and barriers, which can be purchased from Amazon and other leading electronics retailers for less than $20. Contact us for details of the device, as it is not published for security reasons.
For this to work, you firstly need to select ‘Allow bluetooth relay’ in the kiosk settings. Once this is selected, on start up of the Kiosk app, it will launch a screen allowing you to locate and pair the relay.
For the relay to pair successfully, it must be powered on. The relay is powered by a 5V power supply and should be fitted by a professional, and the wiring is typically connected to strike/push button port.
Once you have completed the set up, it should work correctly. There are some circumstances where it will not work, as follows:
Resetting / re-pairing
You may wish to reset your relay connection under the following circumstances:
1) You wish to re-run the connection wizard
2) You want to reassign the relay to another kiosk
Click the Reset button from the main settings panel, and select the appropriate option. The instructions are clearly displayed in the onscreen dialog.
Latching issues
Given the devices have the same name, it is possible to end up in a situation where the bluetooth relay is connected to the wrong device.
This is only going to happen in the event that your conflicting relays and devices are within 10 meters of each other, and where they have all disconnected and then automatically attempted to reconnect to the wrong devices. For example, let’s say you have two devices and two relays all in proximity (approx 10 meters) of each other. Device A is usually connected to Relay A, and Device B is usually connected to Relay B. However, one day, you lose power to both Relay A and Relay B, and then the power returns. When the devices reconnect, there is no guarantee they will find the correct relays. You will find then that the relays are not triggered and you will see an error in the app when a gate relay triggering action occurs, such as a gate opening.
To resolve this situation follow these steps:
Pairing and chaining multiple relays
You can only bind one bluetooth relay to one kiosk. The device ‘latches on’ to the relay once connected, and it can no longer be discovered by other devices. This is a useful characteristic as it allows you to have multiple devices controlling multiple relays, potentially in a chain, either in close proximity or distributed as needed.
All relays have the same Bluetooth broadcasted name. If you are considering pairing multiple relays that are within close proximity, the easiest method is to ensure only the device you want to pair is powered on. Once you pair it with your kiosk, this is now latched. You can then turn on your next relay and pair it with another kiosk.
It is possible to chain relay triggering. A gate open instruction, for example from an ANPR visitor open, can trigger the gate open on another kiosk, which in turn can fire its own relay and/or trigger the gate open on another kiosk, and so on. In this way, devices can be used as IoT relays as required.
There are multiple ways an ent opened:
Notifications are not sent when a proactive open is made; for ANPR or PIN entries, then notifications are sent.
In the case of ANPR, when set up, if Aliases are set up too, number plates can be optionally assigned to aliases. This ensures the notifications are sent to the correct people. For example you might want to be notified when particular friends have entered your shared gate.
If a number plate is not assigned to an Alias, and Aliases are enabled, then no notification is sent. If Aliases are not enabled, then the notification goes to all responders.
Note that number plates & PINs must be unique and they can only be assigned to one alias. One possible scenario to look out for is where there is a person who works for Customer A and Customer B in the same building and needs access. In which case, when that visitor enters via a successful PIN entry or their number plate successfully read, who would we notify? You can simply set up an another alias as a notification group. You can disable ‘Show on kiosk’ option to disallow users to be able select that ‘group’.
PINs may be specific to Aliases, so again they are tied to them. For example a service worker who arrives on foot might need a PIN to access the shared gate and you might want to know they’ve arrived.
There is an override setting called ‘Send all gate open notifications to kiosk admins’ which is useful to ensure all gate opens are captured in the event administrators need to have this information.
Business customers may use the REST API to connect to Entrinsic Connect. A full suite of APIs are available to allow reading and writing of device configurations, including ANPR number plates, PINs, users, aliases and responders, allowing you to fully integrate Entrinsic Connect into your wider security access control systems should you need to. Access to the API is available for registered and verified Enterprise customers only and signing of a strict NDA is required.
