SDK for fingerprint scan as image and count ridges

Question

I tried looking at some posts already posted but it did not help me

What I want to do

Use an SDK (preferably in java) to use in my own application

1. Scan fingerprints and save them as an image format (bmp,jpg or other)
2. If possible count ridges of the fingerprint (but this is secondary)

I was looking into different vendors/sdk such as

• Digitalpersona
• Futronic
• Griaulebiometrics -> Griaule AFIS Fingerprint
• OpenCV
• SourceAFIS

Does one have experience to use any or few of them and which one should I will be able to use for my purpose

I understand SDK may be vendor specific and will be used for their hardware only or is there any other way I can just scan fingerprint and store as images?

Answer 1

You'll need to clarify your requirements before someone can recommend the best SDK for what you want to do. I'm not quite current on opencv modules but that and SourceAFIS have the benefit of being free at any project scale. AFAIK all the others are provided basically on a trial basis by biometric vendors who will eventually want you to purchase a license for every end user.

That being said any biometric scanner vendor should provide you (for free) with device drivers to get an image from their scanner. Typically you'll have to modify some sample C code to do what you're talking about, and without JNI it will likely be impossible to get a scan directly into Java. In my experience it's pretty easy to use a vendor SDK to dump an image into a BMP, so you shouldn't be discouraged even if your C skills are minimal. Of the scanner companies you mention I know that the Futronics sample application is quite simple to adapt to the kind of image acquisition you're looking for, and their basic scanners are cheap and robust.