iPACS: a physical access control system as a service and mobile application

We present iPACS, an automated physical access control system as a cloud service for controlling users activity, navigation and access in large residential infrastructures (e.g. apartment buildings, shopping malls). The main idea is to install on buildings, beacon Bluetooth radio transmitters that broadcast their identifier to nearby devices (e.g. users' mobile phones) and from there, transmit this information safely, together with other application and user data, to a private cloud. The service tracks people, monitors the overall activity in buildings and public venues and offers prompt response in cases of critical events (i.e. overcrowding, health incidents, attacks etc.). iPACS provides also services aiming to inform the infrastructure manager for possible increase of users activity or access requests that require permission based on subscriptions or authorization criteria. These services are deployed over secure private clouds capable of dealing safely with sensitive information while ensuring users privacy. Collectively, anonymous history (log) data are sent to a public cloud for analysis.