BioClient.Web quick-start

1. Decide on your biometric architecture

Deciding on your biometric architecture is the first important step. Your business would have unique requiremewnts and use cases for biometric verification and identification, and you need to build a solution to realise these use cases. The good news is, with the Alcazar Biometric Client Framework, you have a tool, which takes the pain of biometric enablement away, and leaves you with implementing your business processes.

You still have to decide which technologies to use, which applications require biometric enablement, and how to implement your business use cases.

Biometric modes

Biometric modes include the use of fingerprints, facial recognition, IRIS scanning, hand geometry and many more.

Whilst fingerprints were the first biometric mode implemented at large scale, facial recognition has matured dramatically and today is available on millions of smart phones in everyone's hands. Fingerprints are probably still the only mode which can achieve large scale identification, or 1 to many matching, where you have the fingerprint of an unknown person and you try to identify who this person is, but many biometric modes, facial recognition included, provide excellent results for verification, or 1 to 1 matching, where you have the fingerprint of a known person and you try to verfify they they are who they say they are.

The choice of biometric modes depend on your ability to obtain a biometric sample (a fingerprint image, or a facial photograph), on the use case, on your risk profile, and in general, what you are trying to achieve with biometric operations.

Technologies

Once you have selected your biometric mode or modes, you can select your biometric sensors, engines, and stores.

Biometric sensors typically can support only a specific mode, as a fingerprint scanner can only scan fingerprints. Sensors come in wide variety of specifications, quality, durability, and a wide price range.

Biometric engines are used to convert biometric samples into biometric features, which are those data records which can be compared against each other. Engines are available from a limited number of suppliers, some who only support one biometric mode, and others, who have a wider range of products. Some open source biometric engines exist, their use however requires a fair amount of specialist knowledge.

Biometric stores store biometric samples and features, alongside other information related to person identities. Samples and features could just be stored in a database, however a commerically built biometric store will also cater for verification and identification processes, and dealy with the intricacies of feature extraction and comparison, including multi-modal processing.

Application architecture

Applications can be built in different ways. BioClient.Web can be used in client-side or server side mode. Your application architecture and your use cases will determine what works best for you.

BioClient adapter infrastructure

Using the Alcazar Biometric Client Framework, you do not need to concern yourself with the intricacies of obtaining a sample from a sensor, extracting a feature by an engine, and verifying a person against a store. BioClient provides an adapter infrastructure, where you issue simple commands as capture, enrol, or verify, and the framework takes care of the rest.

2. Install and configure the BioClient.Web service

3. Connect your application to BioClient.Web

4. Add the BioClient API to your application

If you have decided to use BioClient in server-side mode, you will need to add the BioClient API to your .Net application. This topic is not covered here.

5. Start transacting with BioClient API

With BioClient.Web, you can easily add biometric functionality to your web applications. All biometric operations are supported.