In this Blog Post, I am going to share about my excitement and experience doing an ARATEK A800 Scanner PHP Web Biometric Integration.
Do people really openly allow themselves to get excited about their achievements?
In my country, most tribes do not openly celebrate their success stories, they gloss over them whenever they become known to the public and attribute their success to God or Luck.
I also come from one of those tribes that has an insurmountable number of superstitious beliefs and thus, we do not openly acknowledge our exploits and achievements publicly.
From a very young age it was instilled in me to not create a big buzz about things that I was excelling in lest it attracted a gaze from someone’s eye with an energy that could stifle your attempts to replicate similar feats.
But wait a moment!
We are currently living in the year 2024!
Times change, people change and new Biometric Scanners come into the market!
If I adhere to those beliefs, no one will get to know about me, Joseph Mwema, the Biometric integrations that I have done in the past or the new Biometric Scanners that I have Successfully integrated.
To your surprise, this Blog Post here is going to defy and break every single bit about that school of thought!
The First ever FBI certified FAP45 Fingerprint Scanner that I ever did Biometric integration for was with an ARATEK A800 Fingerprint Scanner.
In this Blog Post, I am going to blow my own trumpet and tell you about my exploits and success story with this FAP45 Fingerprint Scanner Biometric integration, the ARATEK A800 Scanner PHP Web Biometric Integration.
The ARATEK A800 Fingerprint Scanner
The ARATEK A800 is an FBI certified FAP45 Fingerprint Scanner.
The ARATEK A800 has the following 3 capabilities for Fingerprint Capture;
- Can Capture Two (2) Flat Fingers
- Can Capture Single (1) Flat Finger
- Can Capture Rolled Fingers
In my ARATEK A800 Scanner PHP Web Biometric Integration I did 2 Flat Finger Capture for Enrollment during User Registration and 2 Flat Finger Capture for User Authentication.
In a future demo with the ARATEK A800 Fingerprint Scanner, I will be doing a Biometric integration where I will Demo how to do Rolled Fingers on PHP Web. Be on the lookout for this Video Demo in the next coming days.
Important Features about the ARATEK A800 Fingerprint Scanner that I observed from doing PHP Web Biometric integration with it on Windows;
- Large Platen surface area for Capturing 2 Flat fingers and Rolled Fingers
- Very light Weight and Portable
- Sleek Design with Smooth Surface and a Platen that is lit Green when Capturing Fingerprints
- Powered via USB cable.
- Can be used for Biometric integrations on Computer Desktops as well as on Android Devices
- Produces Quality Fingerprint images of size 800 by 750 pixels
- Has Programmable LED lights
- LED light blinks Green to Notify User of Successful Finger Capture
- LED light blinks Red to Notify User to Re-Capture Finger if it was Not Successful in First Attempt
- Comes with Free API for Software Development and Software Integrations that can Capture, Enroll, Segment and Verify Fingerprints
Now that I have briefed you about the ARATEK A800 scanner that I used for this integration, let us continue.
My Concerns and Doubts before doing the ARATEK A800 Scanner PHP Web Biometric Integration
In the previous past, I have had the experience of doing PHP Web Biometric integrations using an ARATEK device but that was with an ARATEK A600 Fingerprint Scanner.
I have also had an experience of doing PHP Web Biometric integration using another Multi-Finger Biometric Scanner from another Biometric Company but that was just for Fingerprint Capture only.
What I did not have is the experience of doing Fingerprint Authentication for Fingerprint images captured using a Multi-Finger Biometric Scanner.
In my mind I was wondering how it would be possible to match 2 Fingerprints appearing in the same image with other 2 Fingerprints appearing in another image.
I did not know what to make of that scenario.
Before I forget, I did not mention that I started toying with these ideas in my head long before the ARATEK A800 Fingerprint Scanner shipped to me.
Even more bizarre for me was whether I would need to save the 2 Fingerprints appearing in the same image as they were in the database or whether there was a way to extract collectable, measurable and quantifiable biometric data from such an image.
It really boggled my mind on how this feat could be achieved.
So as you can already see, not only was it unfathomable for me on how to proceed with Fingerprint Registration at this time, it was also not clear for me how I would be able to implement Fingerprint Authentication.
This was the First Multi-Finger Biometric integration that I was going to do past Fingerprint Capture and endeavor to do, not only Fingerprint Registration but also do Fingerprint Authentication.
ARATEK Fingerprint API for Finger Capture, Registration, Segmentation and Authentication
Unknown to me, I was of the thinking that as soon as I receive the ARATEK A800 Fingerprint Scanner, I would get work started on it using the ARATEK API that I was using previously for all my ARATEK A600 Fingerprint Scanner Biometric integrations.
Days to receiving, the ARATEK A800 Fingerprint Scanner, I was sent a new ARATEK API for doing ARATEK Multi-Finger Biometric Scanners’ integrations.
I was surprised! I was telling ARATEK that I thought I would be using the same API they had given to me a year earlier for the ARATEK A600 Biometric Scanner to work with it for ARATEK A800 Fingerprint Scanner too.
ARATEK notified me that for their Multi-Finger Biometric Fingerprint Scanners like the ARATEK A800 and A900, I needed an API that could also do Fingerprint Segmentation.
To be honest, I did not expect Segmentation would need to be openly accessible as a function of a Biometric API that Software Engineers would be able to call in their code during Biometric integration.
Do you know why I say so?
This is because, Segmentation is one of those Fingerprint image preprocessing functions that happen outside the scope of mere Biometric integration API preceding the Feature Extraction level of the algorithm.
So as I later on found out, Segmentation needs to be done sequentially on any image with multiple Fingerprints featuring on it for areas of Fingerprints’ patterns on the image to be determined in order for other processes of Fingerprint analysis and extraction to proceed.
When looking at a Single Fingerprint pattern on an image, Segmentation is a distant far at the very beginning that it is not so obviously apparent to you when doing a Biometric integration.
However when faced with images from a Biometric Scanner with Multiple Fingerprint patterns, that is when it is evidently obvious that you need to do Segmentation severally on the same image to get all the Fingerprint patterns from the Fingers captured in that one single image.
It is weird how for a long time, I have been doing tones of Biometric integrations using various Biometric Scanners from many other Biometric Scanner Companies without thinking so much about Segmentation because all Biometric APIs do it but then abstract it from you in their APIs as a Biometrics Integration Software Engineer.
But here I was required to understand why an API needed to avail Segmentation as a function that the Biometric integrator has to integrate with so as to get the particular Fingerprint pattern of a given Finger from an image with several other Fingerprint patterns of other Fingers.
Let me describe this in a simple example to help elaborate this further for you to understand.
Here is the example;
Assuming you present the Right Index Finger together with the Right Middle Finger on a Multi-Finger Scanner (ARATEK A800) for Biometric Capture,
The ARATEK A800 Fingerprint Scanner captures an image of 2 Fingerprints from 2 Fingers during a 2 Finger slap Capture.
In this particular image, you will need to do Segmentation on that image to acquire the 2 Fingers’ Fingerprint patterns from this image after Fingerprint Capture to be able to save them during Fingerprint Enrollment or to be able to use them for Fingerprint Authentication.
See below illustration
Not even after getting the ARATEK API for Multi-Finger Biometric Scanners did I understand much about Segmentation from just looking at the documentation and the example code given.
I decided to wait for the ARATEK A800 device to arrive so that I can figure out this Segmentation bit while doing it practically.
A few days later, I received a notification e-mail that my ARATEK A800 had arrived in the country and will soon be available for collection.
Here below is How the package containing the ARATEK A800 and ARATEK A900 Fingerprint Scanners looked like when it finally shipped.
Beginning Work on The ARATEK A800 Scanner PHP Web Biometric Integration
When I finally got the ARATEK A800 Biometric Scanner, just like with every other Biometric Scanner that I have, whenever a new Biometric Scanner joins the pen of other Biometric Scanners that I have in my collection, it is first initiated into the Tribe by teaching it PHP and making sure that it can Speak PHP for Fingerprint Capture, Fingerprint Registration and Fingerprint Authentication.
The ARATEK A800 Scanner was no exception and that is why there is this Blog Post here to demonstrate that it successfully got inducted into the Club.
I hope you have not forgotten about the Segmentation that I was trying to discuss earlier?
With the ARATEK A800 at hand, I set out to figure out how this Segmentation thing works.
Like I had mentioned earlier, Segmentation is usually abstracted from the API Calls that Software Engineers make to a Biometric API as it is a Basic Core Functionality that every Biometric API implements at the low levels.
So, just like many other Software Engineers who are not the Software Developers of these Biometric APIs I realized that I used to gloss over it over the years and I had no practical interaction with it.
I think this is because of majorly doing most of my Biometric integrations over the years using Biometric Scanners that capture 1 Flat Fingerprint pattern only.
Most of the Biometric integrations that I have done in the past as you may have noticed from my YouTube channel https://youtube.com/@Biometrics were just about Single Fingerprint Scanners.
Once a Fingerprint Scanner that I was integrating with could Capture a Fingerprint image, I did not delve much into taking account of what had happened in the background and the processes that had readied the captured Fingerprint image for further analysis and data extraction.
This is how over the years I had overlooked the critical importance of the Segmentation process.
Theoretically you know what is happening but when you practically figure out that Segmentation is an essential component of any Biometric API you begin to see how everything else pieces together and that Segmentation happens at the very beginning to pave way for the rest of the other processes whether it is for a Single Fingerprint Scanner or a Multi-Finger Biometric Scanner that captures 2 or 4 Finger slaps.
Now that I have covered quite some bit on this Segmentation aspect of the Multi-Finger API that ARATEK notified me was a requirement for me to be able to successfully integrate with their ARATEK Multi-Finger Scanners (ARATEK A800 and A900) let us continue to the next part of this Blog Post
Doing The Actual ARATEK A800 Scanner PHP Web Biometric Integration
After going thru the ARATEK’s Multi-Finger API and the given sample code, I first built a Light Weight small Application that could do Fingerprint Capture, Fingerprint Segmentation, Fingerprint Registration and Fingerprint Authentication to make sure I understood how it works.
Thereafter, I started out on doing the actual ARATEK A800 Scanner PHP Web Biometric Integration starting out with Fingerprint Capture.
Of importance to me was to make sure that as a First Step, I could implement Working Functionalities of the 3 Capture Capabilities of the ARATEK A800 Fingerprint Scanner and have them displayed on PHP Web;
- Capture 1 (One) Flat Finger
- Capture 2 (Two) Flat Fingers
- Capture Rolled Finger
See below Screenshot for where I am doing Capture of 2 (Two) Flat Fingerprints image in the PHP Web Application and displaying the image.
In the Second step is where I was doing Segmentation of Fingerprints Captured.
Not only did I want to do Segmentation on the Captured Fingerprint images but also have the Segmented Fingerprint patterns displayed.
See below Screenshot for where I am displaying the Segmented Fingerprint Patterns after Segmentation is done on the Captured 2 (Two) Flat Fingerprints image.
After 2 Finger Slap Capture using ARATEK A800 showing Fingerprints image and Segmented Fingerprint s Patterns
Up to this far, the most important Steps were accomplished.
I Felt so much relief when I could do Fingerprint Capture and Fingerprint Segmentation with my ARATEK A800 Fingerprint Scanner on PHP Web.
I think at this point I should share some early Photos of How my PHP Web Application looked like at that time. See below Screenshot.
At this point, I could see the light at the end of the tunnel, an assurance that I could finally bring this ARATEK A800 Scanner PHP Web Biometric Integration to Fruition.
What most folks do not know, is that I have some Biometric Scanners lying around here that I did not succeed in doing Biometric integrations with for various reasons and I did not want ARATEK A800 to be one of those.
By the way, for those Biometric integrations that I did not succeed with or those that took unnecessarily a long time to materialize, I do not do any Video Demos nor write Blog articles about them.
I do not even mention those Biometric Scanners or make it publicly known that I have those Biometric Scanners at my disposal.
How do you handle failures on your end? Do you openly talk about them? Do you laugh about them?
There is a tech joke that I first came across on an Indian post on internet that goes, “I am not incapable, I am only limited by the current technology of my time”.
Do you think that excuse will fly with your boss when you are falling behind on project deadlines or would they get agitated and toss out the door your lazy bum and bring in your replacement the next morning?
A previous boss at a Biometrics company that I once worked with, never used to accept defeat lying down, he would never admit at any time that he was at his wits end but would say something like, “I need more time to get it to work” or “I know it is going to work eventually, only that it will take more time than is anticipated to get it to work”.
Just like him, I also decided to go by the same mantra whenever I am faced with difficulties in my work instead of saying something is impossible to do.
Before I lose my train of thoughts, let me wind up on this integration story.
Back to the ARATEK A800 Scanner PHP Web Biometric Integration.
The remaining steps ahead of me now were How to Save the Fingerprint images during User Fingerprint Registration and How to do User Fingerprint Authentication.
In a few days later, I had already started work on User Fingerprint Registration after taking some time off to celebrate the first steps that I had accomplished as discussed above and also attend to other areas of my work and projects that required my attention.
I finished work on User Registration part of ARATEK A800 Scanner PHP Web Biometric Integration and did this YouTube video demo to show you some of the other details that I will not be able to write about on this Blog Post. Please watch that YouTube video demo here titled, ARATEK A800 PHP Web Biometric Registration DEMO for 2 Fingers Capture & Enrollment
The ARATEK Multi-Finger API even allows you to save Fingerprint images in the BMP image format a big plus for carrying out smooth Biometric integration.
I was saving my Captured and Segmented Fingerprint Patterns’ extracted Biometric Data in a MariaDB SQL Database. You can see How I did this on the Video URL I shared above.
The Rains, The Floods and The Electricity Power Black outs
Before I could start work on the User Authentication part of my ARATEK A800 Scanner PHP Web Biometric Integration the country started experiencing more heavy than usual rains during the month of April 2024 all the way to May 2024.
During this time, a series of events transpired.
Heavy rains started pounding the country. The rains were being reported in just about every city and town in the country.
Then the floods!
Floods started wrecking havoc on people’s settlements as rivers started busting river banks.
Water drainages in the cities got blocked and water was making its ways in people’s houses, churches, schools and destroying everything in its way.
Amidst all this, there were frequent electricity power interruptions.
There was a week when I had 3 consecutive days without electricity power supply then it was restored at 10 PM of the 3rd day. That was 3 out 5 working days lost just like that!
On other days during this period, at least when the electricity disappeared for a day, the next day the electricity would be back on.
But that is not the gist of this story yet!
On the morning of the day after the 3 days that there was no electricity, I checked my email’s inbox and replied to several of the emails that I had missed but then there was one particular one that roused my curiosity more than the rest.
There was an email from a company that was seeking to enlist my expertise to help them with .NET MAUI Biometric integration for the Android component of their .NET MAUI Software Application.
They were using Digital Persona series of Fingerprint Scanners for their Software Application on Windows but were stuck with How to do .NET MAUI Biometric Capture and Biometric Registration on Android using the same Fingerprint Scanner.
Having previously done .NET MAUI Biometric integration for Android using ARATEK A600 Fingerprint Scanner, I was thinking in my mind that, I will do this Biometric integration of theirs Quickly, Get over with it and use part of the proceeds of that money to Buy myself a Solar Powered Electricity setup that could make my work continue uninterrupted by the frequent Electricity power outages that we were experiencing in the country at that time.
I had never done any .NET MAUI Biometric integration whether for Windows or Android with a Digital Persona fingerprint scanner. It was going to be my first time.
So when they asked me about my charges, I referred them to my official website www.BiometricsEngineer.com.
They then requested me to send them a Quotation which I promptly did.
I thought to myself, why not start working on this project as I wait for them to approve it.
But that is when I made the mistake I have always repeated, despite my principle of never starting a project the client has not committed to and paid for.
My friend! I do not know what made me assume that I was the only person that had been requested for a Quotation.
It did not occur to me that they could be those companies that already have a consultant at hand that they always work with but they need to collect at least 3 other Quotations from other service providers for legal and compliance reasons.
I even kept them updated on my progress, sharing screenshots of the various stages of developing the application from the Android phone I was using.
There was that back and forth including them sending the errors that they are encountering on their end and me updating them on the progress that I am making on my end.
Then it happened, the silence!
They went mute!
No response from them all of a sudden!
Can you hear the Chirping of the Crickets?
They stopped responding back to my emails.
I nonetheless continued with the integration, struggled thru the pitfalls that the old version of Digital Persona API that I was using put me thru and finally I made it after 2 weeks and produced a working prototype!
I knew there was a more newer version of Digital Persona API that I could have used to make the .NET MAUI Biometric integration move at a faster pace but I could not access their Developer Portal as I had already been kicked out for failing to do the annual renewal of USD $500.
Remember, all this time, work on the User Authentication part of my ARATEK A800 Scanner PHP Web Biometric Integration that I was previously working on had been stopped for over 2 weeks now.
I then thought of recording a video demo of the .NET MAUI Android Biometric App now installed and working in my Android phone using the Digital Persona Fingerprint Scanner and then Sending it to them as proof that I was able to do it but decided at the very last minute not to do it.
I figured out that I was tripping and that I had lost so much valuable time.
Bruh! This is not the first, the second nor is it the third time that I am making this type of mistake and only realized how grave the moronic blunder I made is from how loud the silence from the prospective client is. I involuntarily bagged another Darwin award!
I made a quick resolve that I needed to count my lost time and move quickly to salvage the remaining time and finish work on the remaining part of the A800 Scanner PHP Web Biometric Integration, the User Authentication module.
Completing the User Authentication part of the ARATEK A800 Scanner PHP Web Biometric Integration
It took me some time to get organized and transition back to this project as I had stayed away from it for quite some time.
I went hard at it and did not allow anything or anyone else to distract me from it.
I had this revitalized impetus to get it finished and working as I had envisioned it from the very onset.
I think that Darwin award is what made me work relentlessly on the challenging bits of doing User Authentication bit for the ARATEK A800 Scanner PHP Web Biometric Integration because I wanted to shake it off and bask in the glory of another of my success stories after accomplishing something new.
Had I not been angry from doing that .NET MAUI Biometric integration Project for Digital Persona Fingerprint Scanner that had fell cold, I do not think I would have had a drive so compelling to finish this remaining bit.
Many of the details that I would have talked about the User Authentication part I decided to showcase them in the YouTube video demo that I made thereafter. Here is the URL for this video demo titled, ARATEK A800 PHP Web Biometric Authentication DEMO using 2 Finger Slaps.
To wind up this Blog Post, let me share with you a summary of my experience using ARATEK Multi-Finger API to do ARATEK A800 Scanner PHP Web Biometric Integration.
My Overall Experience doing ARATEK A800 Scanner PHP Web Biometric Integration
This is a summary of my experience integrating the ARATEK A800 Fingerprint Scanner in PHP Web using ARATEK Multi-Finger API;
- ARATEK gives you a FREE Biometric API to Help you do Software integration and Software Development with their ARATEK Scanners so you do NOT need to look for 3rd Party Biometric API to integrate with their Biometric Scanners.
- Fingerprint images Captured by ARATEK A800 Fingerprint Scanner with the help of their ARATEK Multi-Finger API are Large (800 by 750) pixels, Clear and of Good Quality.
- The ARATEK Biometric API is Well Documented and is Easy to Learn and Follow Thru even for Beginner Programmers and Solutions Integrators.
- The ARATEK Biometric API comes with Sample Codes for various Programming Languages to Assist you to Get your Integration Off the Ground in a Short Time.
- ARATEK has a Good Responsive Software Developer Support. Their R&D will Respond back to you and provide you a Solution that Addresses your Problem whenever you raise any concerns with them.
- The ARATEK Biometric Scanners are Largely Available and Ready for Quick Shipping and Distribution to Prospective Customers, Governments, Institutions, Organizations and SMEs in any Country in the World. I got mine in Kenya, Africa.
I have previously done many other Biometric Integrations using various Biometrics Scanners from other Biometric Companies and I would say, I found their Biometric API to be Simple and Easy to integrate with.
You will love the Experience of integrating with ARATEK A800 Fingerprint Scanner using ARATEK’s Multi-Finger API just like I did.
By the way, if you want to learn more about the ARATEK A800 Fingerprint Scanner, visit this Web Page on ARATEK’s website here, ARATEK A800 Fingerprint Scanner and Enquiries.
Also, to reach out to ARATEK and make inquiries about the ARATEK A800 Fingerprint Scanner or any other of their ARATEK Biometric Scanners, you can send ARATEK an E-mail by clicking on E-mail ARATEK for Inquiries.
Amigos! That is basically it for this Blog Post. Thank you for reading up to this far!
Please see the below Screenshots of this ARATEK A800 Scanner PHP Web Biometric Integration.
Need Help integrating the ARATEK A800 Fingerprint Scanner or any other Biometric Scanner in your New or Existing Software Application?
I can Help you!
Write to me on the E-mail Address below or rather; check out the Services and Prices that I offer People like You, Companies, Organizations and SMEs for Biometric integrations on my official website here www.BiometricsEngineer.com.
Other PHP Web Biometric Integrations that I have implemented in the Past
- PHP Web Biometric Integration in Linux
- PHP Web Biometric Smart Card Integration
- PHP Web Biometric Integration using a Columbo Fingerprint Scanner
- PHP Web Biometric Iris Recognition using BK2121U Iris Scanner
Some of the Companies, Organizations and Institutions that I have helped to integrate Biometrics in their Software Applications
