Interacting with a Security System: The Argus User Interface

In the mid-1980s the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) developed the Argus Security System. Key requirements were to eliminate the telephone as a verification device for opening and closing alarm stations and to allow need-to-know access through local enrollment at alarm stations. Resulting from these requirements was an LLNLdesigned user interface called the Remote Access Panel (RAP). The Argus RAP interacts with Argus field processors to allow secure station mode changes and local station enrollment, provides user direction and response, and assists station maintenance personnel. It consists of a tamper-detecting housing containing a badge reader, a keypad with sight screen, special-purpose push buttons and a liquidcrystal display. This paper discusses Argus system concepts, RAP design, functional characteristics and its physical configurations. The paper also describes the RAP's use in access-control booths, its integration with biometrics and its operation for multi-personrule stations and compartmented facilities.