This is a Blog Post about a Web based National ID Biometrics Registration Software Application that I Developed and implemented using the ARATEK A900 Fingerprint Scanner.
This was one of the Best 4-4-2 Fingerprint Biometric scanning projects that I have ever Developed for the Web.
It runs on Multiple Web Browsers such as Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge using the ARATEK A900 an FBI certified FAP 60 Fingerprint Scanner.
Do you have one of those Projects that you worked on in the past that you are especially proud of?
This Project was one of those!
It felt great to see the ideas that I had envisioned for it come to fruition, especially how the ARATEK A900 Fingerprint Scanner integrated Seamlessly and worked Perfectly with Google Chrome my favorite Web Browser.
Nothing made me smile sheepishly from ear to ear like seeing the platen area of the ARATEK A900 Fingerprint Scanner light up Green and hearing the Beep from its onboard Speaker whenever I clicked a Button on the Web based National ID Biometrics Registration Software to initiate any of the 4-4-2 Fingerprint Scan prompts. Anyway, more on that later!
How I Registered for my National ID Document in Kenya
In my country Kenya, as a young person, you are eligible to get your National ID when you attain the age of 18 years.
When I was in High School during my 4th year, I remember a time during the 1st of 2nd quarter of that year when word went around that those who were 18 years of age could actually register for National ID while still at School.
For most Kenyans, one finishes with their High School studies first before applying for the National ID.
So this rumor came off as a bit strange to me!
The Teachers who were involved in overseeing this exercise later clarified that information and actually communicated how the process will be done for those who were already 18 years of age.
I was in one of those High Schools where the entire group of students are made of one gender only!
One sunny boring afternoon, a teacher came in Form 4 East class, called the class representative aside and then he communicated to him that those who wanted to register for their National ID should head over to the Administration block.
I saw my classmates, those Big Boys who wanted to become citizens of Kenya before the rest of us start to stream out of the class and head for the Administration block as had been instructed.
I was 17 years at that time so I could not tag along to go and Register for National ID.
Even if I was 18 years of age at that time, it would have been difficult for me Register for National ID because of a Fungal infection that I was ailing from that ate away at the Dermis of my Fingers from back in the days when I was in Primary School.
My Fingers had contracted a Fungal infection that made my Fingers look like I was a Character that was UnLiving people in a Horror Movie.
If interested, Read about that story on this Quora Answer that I wrote to the Quora Question; If you slice your finger’s skin off, will it grow back up with the same fingerprint?
What I never mentioned in that Quora Answer is that I sustained that cut on one of my Fingers that later on contracted a Fungal infection that later on spread to my other Fingers as well as my Feet after I was caned by a Lower Primary School Teacher.
Those days, Teachers used to Whip the living Daylights out of us. None of them spared the rod! Hahaa!
Just in case I lost you somewhere along the way, the Kenya Education System was that you started at Nursery School and Progressed as follows;
Nursery School -> Pre-Unit -> Primary School -> High School ( Secondary School ) -> College and University.
Fast forward to my last year in Secondary School in my last 4th year ( Form 4 ).
By the way, in Kenya, during my time, the Government did not require an individual that was seeking to get issued with a National ID to show proof of Birth Certificate like they do nowadays as a prerequisite for one to get registered for the National ID.
Before you continue further, check out this article about Historical Evolution of Kenya’s Identity System to understand the rest of this Blog Post.
Let us continue now!
That time, you were only required to bring a copy of Kenya Certificate of Primary Education and a copy of one of your Parent / Guardian’s ID.
I do not remember exactly when but before we sat for the Final Exam to finish with our High School studies, the guys in my class who had applied for the National ID went home with their National IDs as they were issued with them before the Final Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education Exams started.
Getting issued with a National ID in Kenya is a significant feat!
Sometimes the process can take longer than is expected especially if you want to have your National ID soon to do things that you cannot do without it.
So after I cleared High School, one day my Dad told me, that I need to move with speed and register for the National ID.
Unlike my other young compatriots of my time who were eager to acquire National IDs and identify as Citizens of Kenya, I was rather reluctant to go Register for the National ID as I had already realized that I was no longer going to be enjoying the preferential treatment that young people enjoy without consequences of legal action.
Not that I was a criminal nor did I engage in criminal activities but it was now clear to me that 18 year olds have to be responsible in all their engagements and the law holds them accountable in all their dealings as adults.
Anyway! I needed to have a Driving License too and there was no way I could enroll and register for one without a National ID. So I had to go and get a National ID.
On the day that I would go to Register for the National ID, I woke up earlier than usual, gathered all the required documents that I had prepared the night before and headed to the District Commissioner’s Headquarter / Office.
When I got there, I found very many people with envelopes carrying their documents.
I guess not everyone had come to District Commissioner’s (DC) Headquarters for National ID registration like me because this was an Administrative center for various other Government services.
I asked around for where National ID registrations were being done.
I was shown a queue that I had ignored earlier and told that was the one for persons seeking National IDs.
Ahead of me was a young man of Indian origin. He did not look like a recent High School graduate like me.
The queue moved slowly and before not so long there was a lot of us in the queue and those who joined after me.
Those days I was so introverted and could not manage a chit chat with the people in the queue behind me to pass time.
I maintained my calm and silence like the Indian dude ahead of me and instead distracted my bored self by analyzing the ancient wreckages of old broken down government vehicles near the DC Headquarters fence.
I wondered what era those vehicles were operational and whether those were the times of my grandpa because they were really very old and looked like colonial relics of the past left behind by the British after Kenya got its independence in the year 1963.
Those that had number plates on them had a very old Kenya number plate format that existed many years ago.
They looked as though they had some numbers missing compared to the ones that I had grown up seeing.
There must have been very few vehicles in the country that time because the number plates did not look sophisticated.
Others were as though they were assigned random combination of digits and letters and then set loose to conquer the many dusty paths of that time that have since then become major roads that are now tarmacked.
I was just about to start dissecting the tonnage capacity of what looked like a prehistoric Bedford truck at the furthest end of the fence when I realized that the queue had led us to the entrance of a room with several clerks inside busy attending to those in the queue.
Those ahead of us moved in one by one as soon as a clerk cleared with an individual then the Indian guy ahead of me and I were motioned to move to a male clerk just next to the door.
The Indian guy stepped forward as soon as the clerk was done with the person that they were attending to.
He reviewed his papers as I waited behind.
I was beginning to read the mood of the room while looking at the other clerks across the room when the clerk said something that I did not understand to the Indian guy.
The clerk was looking at him with squinted eyes with a gaze as though he was casting doubt on something then I saw the Indian guy dip his hand in his left trousers’ pocket and fished out a crumpled KShs 500 note and put it in the clerk’s hand very fast.
The clerk in turn put the money in his trouser’s right pocket as fast as he had received it!
The undecipherable confusing look on his face that he had on a few seconds earlier cleared and he continued processing the Indian dude’s National ID Application documents.
I think it is only me who saw what happened because I was clearly blocking those in the queue standing behind me and if the other clerks in the room saw it, I think they were least bothered either because it is something that they all do or maybe it happened very fast for them to notice it either.
A few minutes ago, while standing in the queue I had been amusing myself by analyzing wreckages of old government vehicles by the DC Headquarters’ fence before we got into this room and right now, I had just witnessed a Kenyan Policeman taking money from a Public service vehicle Bus driver!
But… wait a minute!
There was no Policeman here!
Only a clerk!
Yet, the same shady transaction had just played out before my eyes.
That is when it hit me that this clerk has just solicited a bribe before serving the Indian guy ahead of me!
Before it was eventually my turn to get served by the same clerk, I tried to compose myself to keep my face as blank as possible, as if I had seen nothing but the more I tried, the more panic crept in. What if the clerk expected the same from me?
I did not have any money on me and I could not fathom being sent away to go back home empty handed, without getting registered for the National ID because I could not grease the system to get this crucial Government document.
My stomach churned inside!
After the paper work, the Indian guy’s fingers were dipped in Black ink and rolled on a white paper with pre-printed square boxes and then it was my turn to get processed.
I stepped forward, handed the clerk my document copies of my documents and waited in bated breath as he perused through them all one by one.
He never looked me in the face and I made sure not to look at his either. Instead, I fixated my eyes gaze on the table at the paper work that he was working on and answered the questions that he asked me about my papers, my date of birth, where I come from, my parents’ names and where I was born in the politest and most calm way I could lest I provoked his demon and he leveled an exorbitant unorthodox tax on me too.
When he was done processing my paper work, he dipped my left hand in the black ink, rolled my fingers one by one on a white pre-printed paper that he had already written my name and other details. Afterwards, he did the same for my right hand’s fingers.
There were no Computers those days at the offices for National ID registration nor were there FAP60 Fingerprint Scanners like the ARATEK A900 Fingerprint Scanner for Fingerprint Enrollment like we do today.
By the way I do not know whether they have them as of this time of writing this Blog Post.
The only place where I know there are Computers and FAP60 Fingerprint Scanners for Fingerprints Enrollment is at the State Department for Immigration and Citizen Services where you go to apply for or renew Passports.
Anyway! After my Fingerprints were Captured, I was told to clean the ink on my Fingers on a rag that lay by the end of the table and told to check in 2 months time to collect my National ID.
I stepped out of that office room with mixed feelings but glad that I had not been asked for any money for my National ID to be processed.
It felt as though I had dodged a bullet!
I had not taken any breakfast that morning before I left to go register for my National ID and now it was already in the afternoon.
Pangs of hunger were beginning to hit hard as I passed by cafeteria joints on my way home.
While heading home, I could not stop wondering whether anyone else was extorted money like the Indian guy who was ahead of me in the queue!
I also thought about the other clerks in that room and wondered whether, they too, were engaged in the same malpractice of extorting National ID applicants!
I wondered whether the Indian dude had anticipated the possibility of encountering these types of Hyenas!
Was that the reason why he had a crimpled note ready in his pocket in case he needed to grease the rusty cogwheels of the system in the unfortunate event that they jammed and jeopardized his rightful genuine application for a government document as a Kenyan?
It dawned on me how unprepared I was to navigate these evils embedded in the Kenyan society.
How did I end up telling you this long story? Hahaa!
Let me stop at this juncture and tell you How I developed the Web Based National ID Biometrics Registration Software Application with the ARATEK A900 Fingerprint Scanner.
Later on, I will tell you more about the ARATEK A900 Fingerprint Scanner.
How I Developed the Web Based National ID Biometrics Registration with ARATEK A900
Not only did I want to Develop a National ID Biometrics Registration System using my ARATEK A900 Fingerprint Scanner, I wanted it to be a Web based National ID Biometrics Registration Software Application.
By the way, if you do not know about the ARATEK A900 Fingerprint Scanner, please visit the ARATEK A900 Web Page to Read and Learn about this FAP60 FBI certified Fingerprint Scanner.
The idea of coming up with a Web based National ID Biometrics Registration Software Application was so that, various National ID Registration centers distributed across towns and cities of a country all had the same interface and connected to the same Database and Server.
I first came up with the Design of How the Fingerprints Enrollment Web Page would look like.
I wanted to have Square Boxes for the Rolled Fingers would be displayed on the National ID Applicant’s Registration Web Page.
I Decided that I would have a Row Section with 5 Square Boxes for Displaying Left Hand’s Rolled Fingers.
Below it, I would a Second Row Section with 5 Square Boxes for Displaying Right Hand’s Rolled Fingers.
Then below the Right Hand’s Rolled Fingers Row, I would have 2 Square Boxes for Displaying the Left Thumb and the Right Thumb.
At the top of the Left Hand’s Fingers Rows, I would have 3 Images and 3 Buttons below everyone of them for Triggering 4 Left Hand Fingers Capture, 2 Thumb Fingers Capture and 4 Right Hand Fingers Capture.
See below Photo of How my First Design Looked like;
At the beginning of the Fingerprints Enrollment Web Page, I would have a Section for showing the National ID Applicant’s particulars that would have been captured from the Applicant’s Registration Details Web Page.
See below Photo of the How this Section for National ID Applicant’s particulars looked like at the very beginning;
I also thought about having a Coat of Arms at the very Top Center,
Never have I ever had a need to come up with a Coat of Arms in my career as a Software Engineer.
I looked up several images of Coat of Arms and noticed that most have Animals and Objects of National symbols in them.
That is when I decided I will have one with Hyenas.
You know how Hyenas and Greed go Together like a Railway Track?
Always side by side and never parting ways! You get the flow right?
Besides, no one ever uses Hyenas in their Coat of Arms! Fingerprint Scanner in the
I figured out that with 2 posturing Hyenas I would make a figuratively unique Coat of Arms for my Web based National ID Biometrics Registration Software Application.
By the way, have you ever offended someone so badly that they decided to get even by calling you a Hyena?
Do you think they were justified to call you a Hyena?
In my country Kenya, when someone says ’Hyena’, people, without batting an eyelid, immediately think that you are referring to the local Politicians, Corrupt Police or Corrupt Government Officials.
Aaargh! Too many Hyena stories!
I understand!
Sorry about that!
I do not know how I digressed!
This is the last Hyena story I will bother you with here!
I also Do NOT like Hyenas!
That said, here below is a Photo of the Coat of Arms that I made with 2 Hyenas for the Web based National ID Biometrics Registration Software Application.
When I eventually started on writing the code for the Web based National ID Biometrics Registration Software Application, I wrote the Code for the GUI first.
This was then followed by integrating the ARATEK A900 Fingerprint Scanner in the Fingerprints Enrollment Web Page.
As for where to save the Registered National ID Applicant’s Details, I created a MariaDB SQL Database for this purpose.
Otherwise for the Captured Rolled Fingerprint images, I made the Web based National ID Biometrics Registration Software Application to archive these images on a Biometrics Folder in the Web Server.
In the GUI of the Web based National ID Biometrics Registration Software Application, I made it such that the instructions for Capturing and Registering the National ID Applicant’s details are in two Languages that is, Swahili and English. The official Languages of Kenya.
I even wrote code that could speak Swahili to instruct the User ( Registration Clerk ) how to go about Biometric Fingerprints Enrollment.
Let me explain this bit of code.
The ARATEK A900 Fingerprint Scanner has an onboard Speaker.
I wrote code that when the User ( Registration Clerk ) clicks on Button for either Capture 4 Left Fingers, Capture 2 Thumbs or Capture 4 Right Fingers, the instructions would trigger code that would Speak the instructions in Swahili to the National ID Applicant.
The Sound with instructions would come thru the ARATEK A900 Fingerprint Scanner.
I really found this to be a very interesting feature!
Before I forget, this ability to speak instructions in the Swahili language via the ARATEK A900 Fingerprint Scanner’s onboard speaker after a Biometric Capture Button Click, I did it with the Text to Speech feature of JavaScript in the Fingerprints Enrollment Web Page.
Now that I have shared details with you about How I Developed the Web based National ID Biometrics Registration Software Application, let us go ahead I tell you about this ARATEK A900 Fingerprint Scanner that was the work horse for Fingerprint Enrollment for the National ID Applicants in this Web Application.
The ARATEK A900 Fingerprint Scanner used for 4-4-2 Fingerprints Capture in the Web based National ID Fingerprint Registration Software Application
The ARATEK A900 Fingerprint Scanner is a FAP60 FBI certified Fingerprint Scanner.
This means that the ARATEK A900 is a Large Area Fingerprint Scanner that is Capable of Capturing High Quality Fingerprint images that meet FBI standards making it Ideal for Government, Security and Forensic Software Applications.
The ARATEK A900 Fingerprint Scanner with its FAP60 FBI certification makes it Stand Out as One of the Biometric Scanners that are Best Suited and Capable for the following Use Cases;
- National ID Registration
- Voter Registration
- Finance and Banking
- National Census Activities
- Law Enforcement e.g. in Registration of First Time Offenders
- E-PassPort and Visa Processing
The ARATEK A900 Fingerprint Scanner has the following Properties that gives it an edge over other FAP60 Fingerprint Scanners. They are;
- A Built in LCD Screen that provides step by step Visual Guidance during Fingerprint Capture and Fingerprint Enrollment
- A Built in Speaker that can provide Audio instructions to Users during Fingerprint Capture and Fingerprint Enrollment
- An IP65 Rated Enclosure that provides Protection again Dust and Water making it suitable for use in adverse environmental conditions
- It incorporates Hardware Level Liveness Detection that utilizes Multi-Spectral Technology to Detect Fake Fingerprint Casts and Moulds thus Further Enhancing Security and Authenticity of presented Fingerprints
- 256 bit AES Encryption that Ensures High Level of Security during Fingerprint Data Transmission
- Free TrustFinger M SDK for Capturing and Enrolling Fingerprints as well as for Fingerprint Segmentation and for Checking Quality of captured Fingerprint images
Photos of the Web based National ID Biometric Registration Software Application
Let me show you some Screenshots and Videos of this Web based National ID Biometrics Registration Software Application that I Developed. See below;
Video Demos of the Web based National ID Biometric Registration Software Application
Need Help Integrating Biometrics into Your Enterprise Systems?
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 Biometric Integrations that I have implemented in the Past
- .NET MAUI Biometric Android App using ARATEK A900 Scanner
- Biometric Fingerprint SDKs for Enterprises Back-End Authentication
- ARATEK A800 Scanner PHP Web Biometric Integration
- Patient Biometric Registration App Driven by ARATEK A800 Reader
- 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
- Factors to Consider in Integrating Web Biometrics Authentication
Some of the Companies, Organizations and Institutions that I have helped to integrate Biometrics in their Software Applications
