BioFoundry® FAQs - Frequently Asked Questions

General FAQ

Biometrics Standards FAQ

Samples included in the SDK

 

BioFoundry® SDK - General FAQ

What is the BioFoundry® SDK?

The BioFoundry® Software Development Kit (SDK) is a comprehensive collection of libraries and utilities that can be used by developers who want to add Biometrics capabilities to their applications or develop Biometric Service Providers compliant with the BioAPI standard. The BioFoundry® SDK offers a uniform, standardized programming interface that is technology-neutral.

What does the BioFoundry® SDK include?

The BioFoundry® SDK includes components, utilities and samples to be used by C, C++, C#, VB, Java, and Web developers. More details about the BioFoundry® components are available in the SDK documentation.

What is the price and what is the license model for the BioFoundry® SDK?

The price is established based upon the way you wish to use the BioFoundry® SDK (for integration into an application, for the development of Biometric Service Providers, etc.) and upon your expected sales volume. For details on purchasing, contact info@biofoundry.com.

What Biometrics devices can I use with the BioFoundry® SDK?

The BioFoundry® SDK can be used with virtually any Biometric technology (fingerprint, iris, face, voice, signature dynamics, keystroke dynamics and more). Biometric technologies that are BioAPI compliant can be seamlessly used with the BioFoundry® SDK. Technologies that are not BioAPI compliant can be made BioAPI compliant using the BioFoundry® SDK.

For more details about the standards employed by the BioFoundry® SDK see our Biometrics Standards FAQ section.

See also our list of Biometric devices and technologies compatible with the BioFoundry® SDK.

I am a Biometric technology vendor. Can I make my technology BioAPI compliant with the BioFoundry® SDK?

Biometric technologies that are not BioAPI compliant can be made BioAPI compliant using the components from the SDK_CPP package of the BioFoundry® SDK. Contact us if you are interested in getting help for how to do this.

Is the BioFoundry® SDK a fingerprint, iris or face development kit?

Thanks to the uniform, standardized interface implemented by the BioFoundry® SDK, any Biometric modality (fingerprint, iris, face, signature, voice, etc.) can be transparently used with it. The BioFoundry® SDK includes a Password Dynamics sample library for your convenience. See also our list of Biometric devices and technologies compatible with the BioFoundry® SDK.

I have a fingerprint reader. How do I use it with the BioFoundry® SDK?

It depends on the software accompanying the fingerprint reader. If the software implements a BioAPI standardized interface, then you can use it as is. If not, then you must obtain a BioAPI Biometric Service Provider wrapper library, which could be developed using the instructions and components from the SDK_CPP package of the BioFoundry® SDK.

Can I start developing a Biometric application immediately once I download the BioFoundry® SDK? Do I need additional software components?

The BioFoundry® SDK comes with a sample Password Dynamics Biometric Service Provider. This technology essentially allows you to enhance any password-based authentication, by checking not only if the passwords match, but also the way users type their passwords. Also see the BioFoundry® SDK Samples FAQ.

You can enable the use of Biometrics in your application by using the Password Dynamics BSP out of the box or, since source code is provided for it, you can modify it to satisfy your requirements.

However, if you want to use fingerprint recognition, iris recognition, face recognition, voice recognition, or any other Biometric technologies, then you need to obtain the corresponding Biometrics products either from 3rd party vendors or from us.

I want to enhance my Web application to use Biometrics for user authentication. Is the BioFoundry® SDK right for me?

Yes, any Windows Web environment (e.g. IIS, Apache, etc.) is supported. The COM component included with the BioFoundry® SDK can be used to perform Biometric operations on the client machine or on the server machine

Support for Unix Web environment is available through the Java component of the SDK.

What programming languages does the BioFoundry® SDK support?

The current edition of the BioFoundry® SDK allows you to develop Biometric Service Providers in C/C++ and applications in C/C++, Java, as well as in any programming languages that are compatible with COM and ActiveX technology (VB, .NET languages: VB.NET C# C++, scripting languages, and so on).

Which platforms are supported by the BioFoundry® SDK?

The BioFoundry® SDK provides support for Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003.

Some components of BioFoundry® SDK are also available for Linux and WinCE/Windows mobile edition.

Does the BioFoundry® SDK support 1-to-1 matching (verification)? What about 1-to-Many matching (identification)?

The BioFoundry® SDK does not implement matching algorithms as such. Instead, the BioFoundry® SDK provides a uniform API to be called by applications and implemented by Biometric Service Providers, eliminating interdependencies between application and Biometric technologies.

What Biometric standards are implemented by the BioFoundry® SDK?

The foundation for the BioFoundry® SDK is provided by the BioAPI (including BioAPI Interworking Protocol) and CBEFF standards. For more information about this, see our Biometrics Standards FAQ section below.

Is the BioFoundry SDK capable of processing WAV, JPG, BMP data for biometric comparison?

The BioFoundry® SDK does not provide a direct way to process *.wav, *.jpg, *.bmp files into data suitable for biometric comparison. In fact, the BioFoundry SDK is not concerned with a specific biometric technology (voice, face, fingerprint or iris recognition). Instead, the BioFoundry® SDK provides standardized components that sit on the top of a particular biometric software and shield your application from the different APIs and capabilities that the biometric libraries have.

In other words, in order to achieve biometric processing and matching capabilities using the BioFoundry® SDK, you need to plug into the BioFoundry® SDK architecture one or more standardized biometric software components.

The advantage of the BioFoundry® SDK is that it lets you integrate in your application *any* biometric modality, which translates into the ability to replace a biometric component (say, for voice recognition) offered by Vendor X with a more accurate voice recognition component offered by Vendor Y, or the ability to replace a voice recognition component with a face or fingerprint or iris recognition component, or the ability to perform multiple biometric comparisons (face recognition + voice recognition); all these with minimal impact on your application.

BioFoundry® SDK - Biometrics Standards FAQ

What is BioAPI?

BioAPI stands for Biometric Application Programming Interface. BioAPI is an International Standard ISO/IEC 19784-1 available for online purchase from the ISO website. You can find additional information on the BioFoundry® website.

Why is BioAPI important?

Any standard aims to bring a certain degree of interoperability in the industry. Two independent software implementations that obey a standard can be used, one "in place of" or "in addition to" the other.

In a highly heterogeneous world such as the world of Biometrics today, the use of BioAPI makes it possible to achieve interoperability between different vendors and technologies that seemingly have in common only one thing: they all are meant to authenticate humans. Regardless of whether a technology uses iris recognition, fingerprint recognition or any other Biometric modality, the use of BioAPI makes it possible to write a Biometric application truly independent of the technology.

I've heard that there are multiple versions of BioAPI. Which one is supported by the BioFoundry® SDK?

The BioFoundry® SDK implements the most recent version of the international BioAPI standard, the ISO BioAPI 2.0. For more details on BioAPI see www.bioapi.org. However, the BioFoundry® SDK includes components that allow backward-compatibility with BioAPI 1.1 Biometric Service Providers.

Is the processing and/or matching speed affected by using BioAPI? What about the matching accuracy?

The delay introduced by BioAPI is negligible. BioAPI has no impact on the accuracy of the Biometric matching.

I use a Biometric technology that complies with Data interchange formats standards, why do I need to use BioAPI?

BioAPI and Biometric Data interchange formats standards complement each other.

Data interchange formats allow Biometric records portability across different vendors and applications, so that different Biometric vendors understand each other’s data. For example, the Biometric data that you enroll using a Biometric technology that complies with Data interchange formats can be processed or matched using another technology that complies with the standard.

BioAPI allows portability across different Biometric Service Providers. By using Biometric Service Providers that comply with BioAPI, your application becomes independent of specifics of a Biometric technology. You can replace an existing Biometric technology, or add support for additional technologies (including different Biometric modalities) without a major impact to your application.

What is the BioAPI Interworking Protocol (BIP)?

The BioAPI Interworking Protocol (BIP) is defined by the International Standard ISO/IEC 24708. At this time, the latest version of the BIP document is available at the following link: Text of CD 24708, BioAPI Interworking Protocol. BIP specifies the syntax, semantics, and encodings of a set of messages ("BIP messages") that enable a BioAPI-conforming application to request biometric operations in BioAPI-conforming Biometric Service Providers across node or process boundaries, and to be notified of events originating in those remote BSPs.

BioFoundry® SDK – Samples FAQ

What samples are included in the BioFoundry® SDK?

The SDK comes with Microsoft Visual Studio sample projects for a few Biometric applications and a Biometric Service Provider. The languages and technologies covered by the samples are C/C++, C#, VB, VB script, Java, COM and ASP.

What is the Password Dynamics BSP included in the BioFoundry® SDK?

The Password Dynamics Biometric Service Provider is a software component able to capture and match the dynamics of keystrokes in the process of typing a password. The Password Dynamics BSP uses 2 factors in assessing whether or not two passwords are similar. First, the Password Dynamics BSP checks if passwords are identical. Second, the Password Dynamics BSP uses an algorithm to assess whether the sequence of keys are typed in a consistent manner. The Password Dynamics BSP calculates a score indicating the probability of a password being typed by the same person.

Can I use the Password Dynamics BSP that is part of the BioFoundry® SDK in my application?

Although the Password Dynamics BSP is provided only as a sample in the BioFoundry® SDK, you can make use of it in your application.

 

For more information, please contact us at 1-888-OSS-2761 (Toll free USA and Canada), +1-732-302-0750 (International), or email us at info@biofoundry.com.

For technical support, please e-mail us at biosupport@oss.com.

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