Why another camera? That is what Fred asked me today when I told him about the new HD Image Cam Web Pro that Safe-Card ID released on December 24, 2010. He told me that the camera was nothing special and that I could use just a regular camera to take employee pictures for making ID badges.
Fred is not familiar with making ID cards so I began explaining to him the problem with cameras and the ID card industry. It seems like the majority of ID card system purchasers look for a camera that will provide a sharp, clear colored photograph of their employees or members. Card system operators also want to take the picture and directly import it into the ID card software they are using. This makes picture retrieval unnecessary and allows for quicker card production if the card is to be printed while the card holder waits.
Any digital camera can take a picture of a person. The digital format can be exported into a computer and saved into a folder in my documents or on the desktop. The picture is given a unique photo name by the camera (usually numbers) and can easily be renamed to the person’s name for easy locating when needed. When it is time to print a badge, an operator opens the id badge software and finds the card design that is needed. The custom data for the employee is entered and then the operator browses their computer to locate the correct photo. When finding the correct picture, it can be selected and saved into the software for printing.
Although this process does work and often is the method of choice for those organizations that have people in the field that submit photos, it is often not the process of choice for organizations that have new employees stream through the human resource department to pick up necessary paperwork and obtain their new badge.
It is preferred, in places like this human resource area, that the employee stands in front of the camera, the operator snaps the photo and the results directly plug into the open software program. This eliminates the steps of transfering the pictures, renaming the photo and then searching and locating needed photos in a computer.
To make a system of direct picture importing work, a digital camera must have a TWAIN driver. This driver allows the software and the camera to be able to connect correctly for a direct photo import. Some digital cameras from branded manufacturers have this driver. It seems that as soon as the ID card industry begins to latch on and sell on of these cameras, the model goes away and it is replaced with a camera that does not have the necessary driver.
The HD Image Cam Pro camera is one camera that contains drivers compatible with ID card software. Since it was developed within the ID card professional community specifically for ID card printer systems, the camera will remain a viable option for some time to come.
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