Sure you do, whenever you lock your entrance door before leaving, even if you may not have heard this name before.
Access Control is the term used generally to indicate all the provisions that can be deployed to deny free admittance to a building, to an apartment, or to the content of a safe.
The purpose is to make sure that only people having the right or the clearance required for getting through can in fact cross the threshold.
One entry
Essentially the same procedure, however simplified, takes place when you open the entrance door of your home with one or more keys. You don't leave it unlocked, even when you are at home, do you$%:
Unfortunately not always a locked door is a guarantee against burglary and theft. Burglars need not look for the right key. They may use other means to force and destroy the door without bothering with the lock.
Why a sturdy door with a solid lock should however be in place$%: Mainly for deterrence. One should always convey the notion that it will take burglars too long to crush the door down, longer than what they may be willing to spend in the task.
Messages:
When the arms are full of parcels it maybe a nuisance to open a door with keys. In the dark it may be hard to locate the keyhole, unless you use a key ring with a small light included. Furthermore keys can get lost or stolen and copied, and then locks have to be changed.
Therefore, to limit the bother and to save on workforce, new means were devised, especially for institutions where employees have frequent need to go through controlled entrances but where keys would be a burden.
The most used means are plastic cards, possibly with a name, a photo and a magnetic strip to be inserted in the controller slot. A code to be typed on the keypad may or may not be requested.
Voice recognition systems are operated hands free, a feature that may be welcomed sometimes. They are smart enough not be cheated by recorded voice.
The ultimate devices for individual recognition are biometric identification units.
Every person has individual traits different from those of anyone else. Those most used are fingerprints and iris scans (the colored ring of the eye).
A catalog of prerecorded data, relative to all authorized persons, permits to screen rapidly crowds of people even in busy airports.
In order to anticipate emergencies when large numbers of people must evacuate a place for safety in a hurry, emergency exits with one way locks have to be prepared, to be easily opened from the inside.
In conclusion one should know enough of Access Control to be able to select practical and proven provisions for the security of every place one is responsible for.