Access Control
A general way of talking about controlling access. Access can be granted or denied based on a wide variety of criteria, such as the time of day, who is visiting, etc.

API
Abbreviation of Application Program Interface, a set of routines, protocols, and tools for building software applications.

Authentication
A technique to confirm the identify of a card, biometrics or a computer system.

Biometrics
The technique of studying physical characteristics of a person such as finger prints, hand geometry, iris pattern, facial characteristics or voice pattern.

Buddy Punching
A way refers to a person punches (smart card or password) illegally for a coworker.

Built-in
Constructed as part of a unit, detachable.

CMOS
Short for Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor. CMOS is a widely used type of semiconductor. CMOS semiconductors use both NMOS (negative polarity) and PMOS (positive polarity) circuits.

DHCP
Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol is an Internet protocol for automating the configuration of computers that use TCP/IP. DHCP can be used to automatically assign IP addresses, to deliver TCP/IP stack configuration parameters such as the subnet mask and default router, and to provide other configuration information such as the addresses for printer, time and news servers.

Dynamic IP
Temporary IP address or an IP address that changes each time you connect to the Internet.

Encryption
Any procedure used to convert plain text to code in order to prevent any but intended recipient from reading that data.
Schematically, there are two classes of encryption primitives: public-key cryptography and private-key cryptography. They are generated used complementarily. Public-key encryption algorithms include RSA, private-key algorithms include the obsolescent Data Encryption Standard, the Advanced Encryption, as well as RC4.

Fingerprint
An impression on a surface of the curves formed by the ridges on a fingertip, especially such an impression made in ink and used as a means of identification.

Image Resolution
Resolution refers to the number of pixels in an image. Resolution sometimes identified by the width and height of the image as well as the total number of pixels in the image.

Internet Appliance
A specialized device for accessing Internet / Web. It can be either plug into a standard telephone jack or have a wire or wireless LAN connection to the Internet.

IP Address
An identifier for a computer or device on a TCP/IP network. Network using TCP/IP protocol route messages based on the IP address of the destination. The format of an IP address is a 32-bit numeric address written as four numbers separated by periods. Each number can be zero to 255. For example, 1.160.10.240 could be an IP address.

IP Camera
Camera that can plug directly into any TCP/IP network, providing on demand video streams over the LAN / WAN.

IP Rated
Index of Protection, specification for degrees of protection provided by enclosures.



JDBC
JDBC technology is an API (included in both J2SE and J2EE releases) that provides cross-DBMS connectivity to a wide range of SQL databases and access to other tabular data sources, such as spreadsheets or flat files. With a JDBC enabled driver, you can connect all corporate data even in a heterogeneous environment.

Legic
A Smart Card and Smart Card Reader manufacturer who supplies LEGIC RF Standard, ISO 15693 & ISO 14443 compliant read/write chip sets, security modules and transponder chips for integration into third party products.

Logical Access
A term refers to the connection of one device or system to another through the use of software.

Mifare
Fully compliant with ISO 14443A, Mifare is the industry standard for contactless and dual interface smart card schemes.

MPEG
Motion Picture Experts Group is the name of family of standards used for coding audio-visual information (eg. movies, video, music) in a digital compressed format.
The major advantage of MPEG compared to other video and audio encoding formats is that MPEG files are much smaller for the same quality.

i. .avi
AVI stands for Audio Video Interleave. It is a special case of RIFF (Resource Interchange File Format). AVI is defined by Microsoft. AVI is the most common format for audio / video data on the PC. AVI is an example of a de facto (by fact) standard.

ii. .gif
Graphical Image Format, a widely supported image-storage format promoted by CompuServe that gained early widespread use on online services and the Internet. Resolution is limited to 8-bit, or 256-bit color. GIF89a is more recent format that supports interlacing.

iii. .jpg
Joint Photographic expert group, a file format for photographs on Web pages. The jpg format compresses large photo files so they don't take up as many kilobytes of memory.

iv. .mov
A file format for Quicktime movies and animations, developed by Apple Computer Co.

v. .mp3
MPEG 1 audio layer 3. Compression scheme used to transfer audio files via the Internet and store in portable players and digital audio servers.

vi. .tiff
Tagged image File Format. A widely used file format for storing gray scale and color images.

ODBC
Open DataBase Connectivity, a standard database access method developed by the SQL Access group in 1992. The goal of ODBC is to make access any data from any application, regardless of which database management system (DBMS) is handling the data.

Operating Temperature
The temperature range which the device has been designed to operate.

PIN
Personal Identification Number, the number or code that a card holder must type in to confirm that they are the genuine owner of the card / biometrics.

Power over Ethernet
Power Over Ethernet technology describes any system to transmit electrical power, along with data, to remote devices over standard twisted pair cable in an Ethernet network.

Primary / Secondary Mode
With a unit that is set to be in primary mode and other units are set to secondary mode, all settings include terminal settings, content and other stuff will be synchronized amongst the units. Primary unit has the right to change all the settings and will distribute to the secondary units while secondary units have limited rights and can only configure itself.

Real Time
A transmission or data processing mode in which the data is entered in an interactive session where an application can respond fast enough to affect later data input.

Relay
An electrically controlled mechanical device that opens and closes electrical contacts when a voltage (or current) is applied to a coil. A relay provides isolation of control signals from switched signals.

Remote Monitoring
A network management protocol that allows network information to be gathered at a single computer.

RS232
An Electrical Industries Association (EIA) standard which is the most common way of linking data devices together. The connection to an RS232 is usually limited to a maximum of 50 feet. It is a standard of binary data interchange between a DTE (Data Terminal Equipment) and a DCE (Data Communication Equipment).

RS485
RS485 is an electrical specification of a two-wire, half-duplex, multi-point serial connection. It offers high data transmission speeds (up to 10Mbit/s), and since it uses a differential balanced line over twisted pair, it can span relatively large distances (up to 4000 feet or just over 1200 meters).

SDK
Software Development Kit

Smart Card
A smart card contains a chip with memory and is typically used to hold customer account information and a balance of money similar to checking account. The card is inserted into a device or placed over RF field that can read and write to it updating information appropriately.

SSL
Short for Secure Sockets Layer, a protocol developed by Netscape for transmitting private documents via the Internet. SSL works by a public key to encrypt data that's transferred over the SSL connection. Both Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer support SSL, and many web sites uses the protocol to safely transmit confidential information, such as credit card numbers.

Standalone
A device or system that can perform its function independently.

Static IP
A static IP address is a number (in form of a dotted quad) that is assigned to a computer / appliance by an Internet Service Provider (ISP) to be its permanent address on the Internet.

TCP/IP
The Internet protocol suite is the set of communication protocols that implement the protocol stack on which the internet runs. It is sometimes called the TCP/IP protocol suite, after the two most important protocols in it: the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and the Internet Protocol (IP), which were also the first two defined.

Ticker
A telegraphic system that continuously provides, for example,  the last sale prices and volume of securities transactions on excahnges. Information is either printed or displayed on a moving tape after each trade.

Wiegand
A card reading technology which uses coils of special wire embedded in a card to generate a unique electrical pattern when the card is run through a magnetic sensor. Wiegand devices are access control devices that employ this technology.

WiFi