A FIFE nursery has unveiled the high-tech entry system which has replaced its old-fashioned doorbell—a fingerprint scanner.

The Wonder Years Nursery in St Andrews has installed the technology to protect the 119 toddler and after-school club children in its care.

Only those staff and parents whose fingerprints have been registered on the nursery’s computerised system will be able to enter the East Sands premises.

If the door stays open longer than necessary for one person to enter or exit, an alarm will be triggered to alert staff at the front door.

The system was installed by UK Biometrics, which also works with iris and facial pattern recognition.

Phyllis Wilson, who owns the nursery with her sister Jacqui Crush, said, “The protection of our children at all times is of paramount importance.

“Although we never had any problems before, the old doorbell entry system meant that people had to wait outside, often in the rain, while a member of staff came to let them in.

“It also opened up the possibility for errors so it was obvious that a more secure system had to be found—the fingerprint scanner was ideal.”

The scanner registers a fingerprint in seconds and stores an encrypted version in its database.

UK Biometrics operations director Shaun Oakes said the system’s popularity for businesses and homes was growing quickly in the UK.