Ask Slashdot: Linux and Biometric Devices?

Painting asks: "What are the current available applications for biometric devices that support Linux in a secure network enviroment? I have used several different biometric devies (such as face and fingerprint recognition) for authentication purposes, but these have all used a Microsoft OS... "

Re:Devices

[rw2]

Under Linux, you have to have a driver for each individual camera. So you have to tailor your software to a specific vendor's camera.

What's wrong with the Video4Linux project (http://roadrunner.swansea.uk.linux.org/v4l.shtml) ?

Fingerprint

[rdale]

Our company plans on writing drivers for U.are.U's
digitalPersona. It's a USB device, so guess what
else has to work before that. We don't expect to
begin until July (but it shouldn't take too long).

Devices

[BitPoet]

All Biometrics require some kind of hardware. Most require specialized hardware, fingerprint scanners, retinal scanners, etc. Creating drivers for them for most OSes are a pain in the ass. There are facial-recognition algorithms that can use standard cameras. Under windows, there is a standardized API for cameras, paralell port, PCI-card interface, etc. Under Linux, you have to have a driver for each individual camera. So you have to tailor your software to a specific vendor's camera. Under windows, you just need to access the generalized API, and you're done.

I don't know if the same thing goes for sound cards and microphones, but I think you get the idea.

Biometrics are expensive, mostly due to the hardware costs. This is about as true for Windows as it is for Linux.

From a strictly corporate view, most Linux users are college kids and home users. College kids don't have much money, and home users don't have much of a need for that level of security.

If I was a biometrics company (and I've programmed for one, btw.) I'd aim all my development $$ at an OS that'll give me a lot of customers. That's Windows.

There are also some people that develop Biometrics as grad or Phd projects, those are kinda hard to find, since most of those people go and start their own company with what they have. Met about 5 of 'em.

Anyways, the basic point of this is to say that Biometrics are expensive, and most people view Linux users as non-corporate types, and free ones are hard to get. I believe that there are some books that have the algorithms in them. That's all well and good, but the problem is that there are a _lot_ of constants that need tuning to get to a point where it is usable.

So, wait a few years and there ought to be more of a market out there.

Biometrics and Linux

[BobHillhouse]

American Biometric Company designs and manufactures several biometric devices. We're entering our third generation of products and all our products support Linux. All our toolkits work under i386 Linux and as demand increases we will be supporting other hardware. Check out http://www.abio.com.

Come see us at the Linux Expo where we'll be showing a kdm login using biometrics!

Bob Hillhouse
[e-mail]