Web Biometric Enrollment and Registration – Joseph Mwema

What is Web Biometric Enrollment?

You could also reframe this Question to ask, What is Web Biometric Registration?

Web Biometric Enrollment is the Capture of a Person’s Biometric Data for the first time into a Biometric System’s Database together with their other particulars that uniquely identify them like Name, Date of Birth, Gender and Nationality.

Web Biometric Registration is the first step of getting data into a Biometric System’s Database.

Emphasis must be made during Web Biometric Enrollment that, quality Biometric Data is captured at this step because Web Biometric Authentication’s success is dependent on best practices being adhered to during Web Biometric Registration.

To further understand the Web Biometric Enrollment process, it is vital to look at the factors that influence the success of Web Biometric Registration.

5 Factors that influence success of Web Biometric Enrollment

1. Mixing of Biometric Scanners from different vendors during Web Biometric Enrollment.

Fingerprint images from different manufacturers will produce Fingerprint Images with different Dimensions (length & width), Image Details, Pixel Resolution, and Quality.

Fingerprint images from Fingerprint Scanners which have met FBI and NIST standards are the fingerprints that are recommended for use in Web Biometric Enrollment.

Usually, it is the leading Biometric Scanner manufacturers which will avail their devices for assessment of adherence and meeting of quality standards pressed upon by institutions like the FBI and NIST.

Take note that not every company which alleges to be a leading Biometric influencer in the Biometrics industry is one! The Biometrics companies in this league have certifications to show for every one of those qualifications they have earned for excelling in the Biometrics industry. Imposters in the industry will add the tag ‘leading biometric company’ to their trademark.

IMPORTANT: Always look for genuine certifications that are also acknowledged by other sectors in the Biometric industry to determine authenticity of a Biometric Scanner from any vendors.

Also, a leading Biometric Scanner manufacturer will have been in the industry at least for over a decade with a line of Fingerprint Scanners over the years with information on when every one of them was made available to the market.

This post will also recommend to you some of the Biometric Scanners which have met FBI and NIST standards for use in the Biometric industry.

Do not forget, during Web Biometric Enrollment, always use Fingerprint Scanners of the same type so that in your Biometric Database you have Fingerprints of the same Dimensions, Pixel Resolution, Image Details and Quality. This way, it will be easier to make any calibrations to the Fingerprint Images with the same parameter to meet any required adjustments in future like converting existing Biometric Data to a new industry Biometric Data type or industry requirement. This would not be possible if in your Biometric Database you have Fingerprint images of different configurations from various diverse Biometric Scanner vendors.

PHP Web Biometrics Lite pack

2. Dry Fingers

Quality of Fingerprint Images captured during a Web Biometric Enrollment exercise can be affected by how dry the Fingerprint images are.

Dry Fingerprint s will be coarse and when presented on the Biometric Scanner for capturing of Fingerprint images will produce low quality Fingerprint images that will also make Web Biometric Authentication problematic later on.

To prevent Dry Fingerprint images from negatively affecting your Web Biometric Enrollment exercise, it is important to figure out how to handle this before Fingerprint images are captured.

A person with dry Fingerprints could be asked to rub their dry Fingers on their face. This can help moisten up a bit because the human face is usually oily before they present their Fingerprints again for enrollment.

The person with dry Fingerprints could oil their hands to make them smooth before presenting them again on a Biometric Scanner.

3. Wet Sweaty Fingers

Wet Fingerprints on the other hand can be a hindrance to a Web Biometric Enrollment exercise. First, they could mess up any paper work because if ink on paper is stained, it will discolor the registration documents or if on the Fingerprint Scanner, affect the Quality of the captured Fingerprint images.

Some people have Fingerprints which naturally sweat and are always wet. This however should not make them worry at all when they are required to present their Fingerprints for a Web Biometric Enrollment exercise.

To make it easy for Wet Sweaty Fingers to be enrolled on a Biometric System, you could recommend to the person to rub their Fingers on their trousers, skirt to dry them up before presenting their Fingerprints on a Biometric Scanner.

4. Cuts and injuries on Fingers

Temporary cuts and injuries can affect the quality of Fingerprint images during Web Biometric Enrollment.

This is so because, the cuts and injuries will heal after some time and future Biometric images captured during Web Biometric Authentication will be different from those captured during Web Biometric Enrollment.

The differences between Fingerprint images captured during Web Biometric Enrollment and during Web Biometric Authentication could influence the Comparison match scores to an extend that if the match scores fall below the desired threshold, the comparison result returns a NO MATCH value.

To prevent cuts and injuries affecting quality of Biometric Fingerprint Data captured during Web Biometric Enrollment, people could be asked to reschedule the web Biometric Registration until a time when their Fingerprint will have been healed. Affected persons could be asked to seek attention or non-affected fingers used instead during Fingerprint Registration.

5. Worn out and under developed Fingerprints

There are some exceptional cases that could prevent capturing and enrollment of quality Biometric Fingerprint images during Web Biometric Enrollment like Worn out Fingers and Under Developed Fingerprints.

People who engage in lots of menial jobs could after some time observe that their Fingerprint patterns are not clearly visible. During capturing of Fingerprints, their Fingerprint image patterns will not be clear and this could make it hard for some type of Biometric Fingerprint scanners to draw Biometric data from them. Persons who experience such should be advised to use protective gloves when working.

Under developed Fingerprints on the hand is prevalent with young kids whose Fingerprints are still developing. A kid’s fingerprints will change with time as they grow until to around age 5-6 years when their fingerprints will have become fully developed. Enrolling Biometrics of a kid could be different from the same fingerprints again in a 2-3 years’ time when they present them again for Web Biometric Authentication.

It is best recommended for kids below ages 5-6 years to have their parents or guardians use their fingerprints instead for any Biometrics required registration processes until the kids are all grown up to be able to use Biometrics on their own.

There are studies and research currently underway, working towards availing Biometrics Scanners that can help with Biometric Fingerprint Enrollment of young kids into a Biometrics System.

A correctly done Web Biometric Registration exercise is one which endeavors to capture all pertinent information about a Person together with their Biometric Data.

What data is captured during Web Biometric Enrollment?

During Web Biometric Enrollment a series of activities happen. These activities target to register and enroll the following data. They are;

Registration of Person’s Identifying Particulars
Capturing of Person’s Biometric Data

1. Registration of Person’s Identifying Particulars

The Person details that can captured during registration entail but are not limited to the following;

First Name
Surname
Middle Name,
Date of Birth
Gender
Nationality
Blood Group type
Religion
Employer
Marital status
National Identity Number / Social Security Number

The information captured about a person at this step should only be the required information for the purpose at hand.

Depending on a case by case scenario, the person’s data captured can vary and in some instances there may be no much data required other than e.g the names and maybe the national identity number.

2. Capturing of Person’s Biometric Data

To capture Biometric Data of a Person, several things too need to be considered beforehand. The following are things that could be looked into to determine what Biometric Data is going to be captured during Web Biometric Enrollment.

Which Fingerprints are to be captured for Left Hand
Which Fingerprints are to be captured for Right Hand
Is one or more Fingerprints required for Fingerprint Registration
Are indexes of Enrolled Fingers required to be captured too e.g. is Fingerprint 1 a Left Index or a Middle Right |Finger or a Right Thumb
What is the format of the enrolled Biometric Fingerprint going to be? Is it going to be an image of type PNG, JPG, JPEG, BMP, GIF or another data format?

After required Biometric Data is captured, together with other captured pertinent data of the person, the entire data set is combined together and archived in a Web Biometric Database.

To secure Web Biometric Enrollment process, it is important to factor in security concerns and ensure that the enrolled Biometric Data is safely channeled thru a secure network connection to the Biometric Database especially if it is being done remotely outside a company / organization’s headquarters.

10 Finger Capture in PHP using a KOJAK Biometric Scanner Demo

How should Biometric Registration and Enrollment be secured on Web?

To secure the entire Web Biometric Enrollment process, the following can be put into practice.

Run the Web Biometric Enrollment via a secure SSL connection. You should ensure that the Web Biometric Enrollment page is served to client computer via a secure HTTPS URL link that would resemble something like https://CompanyWebAddress/WebBiometricEnrollmentPage Take not that it is NOT just http:// but https://
Update your preferred Web Browser to the latest version that has updated security features so that you only Web Biometric Enrollment on a Web Browser version you have confidence in.
Always download new Web Browsers or updates of your Web Browsers from the Web Browser vendors themselves to ensure that you do not install compromised Web Browsers on your Computers. For instance, you should never download Mozilla Firefox Web Browser from any other website other than from Mozilla website itself. Similarly, do not download Google Chrome Web Browser from any other website other than from Google itself. The same applies for other Web Browsers like Opera, Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer.
Use Biometric Fingerprint Scanners from Trusted sources and Companies. Do not just buy or use in your network any Biometric Scanner you see or find in the market. As the twist of fate goes, these suspect Biometric Scanners are the ones that will fetch cheap market prices. Take care! These are devices that could be priced lowly in the market so as to be easily fordable but under the hood they are espionage electronic devices stealing Biometric Data and sending it to some country somewhere oversees for use by unscrupulous government agencies that have no respect for data rights and God knows for what other purpose they intend to use your Biometric data for.

Which are the Best and most Recommended Biometric Scanners for use in Web Biometric Enrollment?

Below is a list of Biometric Scanners you can confidently buy and use for your Web Biometrics Project. Just make sure you buy then from authentic sources and be wary of counterfeits that mimic their brands. They are;

DigitalPersona 4500
DigitalPersona 5100
DigitalPersona 5160
DigitalPersona 5200
DigitalPersona 5300
Eikon Touch 510
Eikon Touch 710

Recommended Biometric Fingerprint Scanners

What Web Browsers should be used for Web Biometric Enrollment?

You can use any Web Browser you love or are comfortable using but make sure it is a secure Web Browser that has recent updates and one that has been around for long and with a good reputation in the market.

Some Web Browsers you could use for your Web Biometrics system are;

Mozilla Firefox
Google Chrome
Opera
Microsoft Edge
Internet Explorer

Finally, if you want to have Web Biometric Enrollment running on a Computer without hitches of Operating Systems glitches, consider using the following Microsoft Windows Operating Systems. Do not use Microsoft XP and anything below it at all. You should only use Windows 7 and above. Here are some stable Microsoft Windows operating systems you could use. Make sure you have genuine, registered and activated copies. They are;

Microsoft Windows 7
Microsoft Windows 8
Microsoft Windows 8.1
Microsoft Windows 10
Microsoft Windows Server 2012
Microsoft Windows Server 2016
Microsoft Windows Server 2019

That’s all. Is there anything you deem should have been in this post but is missing and you would like it added to this post? Write to Jomutech Systems on the below e- mail for it to be looked into and reviewed for consideration for addition onto this post.

Joseph Mwema, we would like to Establish contact with you so that you can Help us with Biometrics integration in our Project. How do we contact You and what are your terms of Engagement?

Learn more about what I do and what my asking rates are for those interested in engaging my expertise in developing and implementing identity access management solutions in their Software based Projects using Biometrics from here About Section of Joseph Mwema’s Vlog