Last week VCU announced a new system of eye scanners being installed at their Monroe Park campus food court with the hope of speeding up food court access.



Last week VCU announced a new system of eye scanners being installed at their Monroe Park campus food court with the hope of speeding up food court access.

VCU students took to Facebook to share their own concerns about the new iris scan system, with most questioning costs of the program:





We reached out to VCU to ask some questions about the new program, many similar to those expressed above, and here’s what we know now:

The new eye scanners came in at about $31,500 for instillation and “VCU Dining Services is not aware of any future recurring costs,” said Sarah Murphy, a VCU comms specialist, via email. “This new voluntary validation process will have no impact on future budgets.”

Students will NOT be required to get their eyes scanned to enter Shafer, the old card-swipe system will stay in place.

Stephen Barr, Director of Campus Services and overseer at VCU Dining Services, also sent us back some responses to questions.

North Carolina-based ColorID, the company behind the new eye scanning tech, is the same group who handles the VCU card program. According to Barr, “It made the process easy when tying the two mediums together (ID Credential and Iris Credential).”

In the original announcement for the new scanners, VCU said the iris scan system compared to the thumb print scanner at VCU Cary St. Gym. It would seem recycling this thumb print scanner would make more sense instead of a new system requiring a new scan, but Barr said quite the opposite.

“The finger print can be affected by cuts or changes to the digit used by the customer,” he said, stressing the use of palm prints, or any hand-contact in a food-environment might not be the most sanitary option.

“… Both forms of [hand] verification required direct contact with the reader,” Barr said. “When people are going to eat we want to minimize the exposure of thousands of hands/fingers touching the same device.”

Again, Barr wanted to stress the system is not mandatory, nor does the school have plans to put the iris scanners in other locations. Barr said he hopes students look at as more of a time-saver, but if the system works, they might consider it in other locations.

“This is just an option for meal plan holders to mover quicker through the dining line. If other VCU units would like to look at the technology and implement it in their area, it would be fairly simple. It can work many areas as an authentication mechanism (example : door access).”

Read our original story about the new iris-scanners here.