04-10-2010, 11:34 AM
Abstract
One of the major early problems that biometrics faced was
the lack of interoperability between different software applications and
devices developed by different vendors. The BioAPI Specification has
defined an open system standard application program interface (API)
which allows software applications to communicate with a broad range
of biometric technologies. This paper describes the design and implementation
of an open source Java framework intended to provide single
sign-on web authentication based on BioAPI-compliant biometric software
or devices. The open-source principle makes this system a novel and
practical development tool for testing and integrating biometric modules
and devices from third parties.
Introduction
The popularity of broadband internet and cell phone connections has introduced many high added-value remote services where it is important to verify the identity of the authorized user. Classical techniques for electronic person authentication have several drawbacks in terms of performing reliable and user-friendly identity recognition; this occurs particularly with remote operations, where hacker attacks add to forgotten, shared, lost or stolen passwords or cards. Automatic identity verification, based on distinctive anatomical features (e.g., face, voice, fingerprint, iris, etc.) and behavioral characteristics (e.g., online/offline signature, keystroke dynamics, etc), is becoming an increasingly reliable standalone solution and attracting a great deal of attention as far as remotely-based applications are concerned. Nevertheless, this kind of biometric authentication implies new technological challenges that must be addressed to ensure full acceptance in many remote services [1]. One of the major early problems that biometrics faced was the lack of interoperability between different software applications and devices developed by different vendors. For this reason, the BioAPI Consortium was founded to develop a biometric Application Programming Interface (API) that would bring platform and device independence to application programmers and Biometric.
