Later, the paper-based system was replaced by guard tour punch card clocks. The punch card clocks work in the following way: the patrolling personnel carry a specialized clock on the patrol routes. After arriving at a checkpoint, a special key is taken from a box installed there, and turned inside the clock. A punch card has been previously installed inside the clock and a mark different for every key is printed on the punch card together with the time. The manager will then collect the cards and assess the performance level of the patrollers. The punch card clocks were inconvenient to carry broke down often, and the mass of punchcards collected made calculating accurate employee performance statistics a cumbersome job.

With the advancement of technology, electronic guard tour systems based on contact-type TM cards came into use. The TM cards contain integrated circuit boards that get their power when the guard tour readers make contact with the cards. This way, the readers are able to read the unique identification numbers stored within the cards' circuit boards, and save them together with the time of reading inside the reader's internal memory. When the patrol routes are completed, the readers are connected to data transfer units to upload their contents onto a computer, where the data will be recorded and verified. There are many advantages to the TM card-based guard tour systems compared to earlier solutions: the Guard Tour readers are small in size and easy to carry, and computerized data collection and verification are much faster and more accurate. Since then, contact-based TM cards were popularly used not only in guard tour systems, but also in fields such as consumer product storage management, access control, and time attendance management. These types of systems, however, are not without their flaws, such as:

Wear and tear on the contact points of both the cards and the readers.

Having exposed signal checkpoints make them vulnerable to the effects of weather, as well as human sabotage and theft.

The need to physically make contact with the cards makes them difficult to use in some situations.

Most recently, contact-type signal cards were replaced by non-contact type signal cards based on radio frequency (RFID) signal. In most of the fields described above, RFID signal cards have become the standard. However, the guard tour systems industry has remained the exception by being still largely dependent on contact-type TM cards.

Why is it that TM cards are still used in guard tour systems around the world? That's because two major technical obstacles had to be overcome before non-contact type guard tour systems could be widely adapted:

• Energy consumption. Because non-contact cards need to be given power via radio waves, the energy spent by the non-contact card readers are much greater than contact-type readers.
• Durability and waterproofing. Because of electromagnetic compatibility issues associated with RFID signals used by the non-contact readers, it has been difficult to install sturdy and waterproof casings on them.

A few years ago, we successfully overcame these two obstacles, and led the guard tour industry toward a new era of non-contact type systems. Currently, contact-based guard tour systems around the world are rapidly being replaced by non-contact systems. The reason for this can be summed up in these reasons:

• Their need for physical contact meant that TM type contact-type cards must be exposed when installed exposed to the elements, making them vulnerable to the effects of rain, snow, fog, and other weather conditions, increasing the rate of breakdown. This also makes contact-type systems unusable in places where the contact points are easily blocked, such as low-temperature areas where ice can form on the surface of the signal cards, and also in dirty environments where the contact points can be blocked by dust.
• The fact that contact-type cards must be exposed meant that they often become targets of human sabotage and theft.
• The contact points on both the TM-type cards and readers can easily wear out because the guard tour readers must physically make contact with the signal cards to perform readings. High-volume and haphazard usage can easily break down the readers this way and make them unusable.

These are all past problems that become easily resolved once RFID-based non-contact guard tour systems were put into place. Because data from the signal cards are read without contact, they can be buried inside walls, making them invulnerable to the effects of weather (rain, snow, fog, dust, etc.) as well as to intentional sabotage and theft. In addition, neither the RFID signal cards nor the guard tour readers have contact points, eliminating the possibility of contact-based damages.

As more problems with contact-type guard tour systems become exposed and the users become ever more sophisticated, we continues in its developmental efforts, making products that are ever more reliable and with more capabilities. Contact-type guard tour readers are exiting from the stage of guard tour products, just as paper and punch clock-based systems have done in the past, making room for the much more reliable and convenient non-contact type products. The proof is that most new installations of guard tour systems today are done with non-contact type equipment rather than contact type.