MegaMatcher 4.

0,
VeriFinger 6.3, VeriLook 5.0
and VeriEye 2.3 SDK
Quick Start Guide

Copyright 2005-2011 Neurotechnology. All rights reserved

MegaMatcher 4.0, VeriFinger 6.3, VeriLook 5.0 and VeriEye 2.3 SDK

Table of Contents
1 Introduction

2 Installation

3 Running Samples

4 API essentials

4.1 Licensing

4.2 Features Extraction

4.3 Identification

5 What's next

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1 Introduction
This Quick Start guide provides basic information about Neurotechnology Biometric SDK bundle which includes following
products:
VeriFinger 6.3 SDK providing fingerprint identification technology;
VeriLook 5.0 SDK providing facial identification technology;
VeriEye 2.3 SDK providing iris identification technology;
MegaMatcher 4.0 SDK for development of large-scale AFIS and multi-biometric systems.
To make this document short and accessible to new users only basic functionality is covered and most common use
scenario is assumed. The reader will be guided through setup process and running of some sample application. Finally,
developer will be pointed to some important API functions.
Further information
More information about mentioned Neurotechnology products can be found in appropriate brochure at
http://www.neurotechnology.com/download.html#brochures.
Developers should refer to "Documentation/Neurotec Biometric SDK.pdf" which contains the complete API
reference as well as description of sample programs and tutorials.
Users are also welcome to contact Neurotechnology Support Department by email.

2 Installation
3
SDK installation consists of two steps:
1. Copy the content of the SDK archive to convenient location on local computer;
2. Activate the licensing software, which is necessary for SDK to work correctly.
On Linux and Mac OS X these steps must be performed manually, on Windows setup wizard can be used.
Installation on Windows
On Windows both installation steps can be performed by running NeurotecBiometricSDKSetup.exe.The application will
ask for destination location, copy the files and launch the Activation wizard. It will also automatically install .NET framework
redistributable which is needed to run .NET samples and Activation wizard.
Software activation
Neurotechnology provides various licensing schemes for products. On Windows ActivationWizardDotNet.exe located
in Bin/Win32_x86/Activation (Bin/Win64_x64/Activation) directory can be used to guide through installation of
appropriate license. On other systems, users will have to modify configuration file of activation service manually.
Both methods are described in the Activation.pdf which is located in Documentation directory.

3 Running Samples
After activation is completed, sample applications can be run to explore functionality of the SDK. The applications should be
quite intuitive and allow usual operations:
Enrollment a new person is made known to the application. His/her biometric information (provided as an image loaded
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from file or acquired live) is analyzed and stored in compact internal format.
Identification ( page 4) a person is checked by the application. His/her biometric information is compared against all
known records and match is reported. Some applications allow 1-to-1 comparison of biometric information, called
Verification.
More details, including description of possible options, can be found in "Samples" chapter of "Neurotec Biometric
SDK.pdf" located in Documentation directory.
Notes:
Drivers for supported scanners/cameras can be downloaded from
http://download.neurotechnology.com/Scanner_Drivers.zip.
Alternatively SDK can be used with images from sample database available at
http://www.neurotechnology.com/download.html#databases.
Windows
SampleExplorer.exe wizard can be used to browse through available sample applications. Alternatively compiled
applications can be found in bin\Win32_x86\ (or bin\Win64_x64\ depending on platform). Here is a short listing:
Fingerprint identification
FingersSampleWX.exe VeriFinger sample for wxWidgets C++ library
FingersSamplePas.exe VeriFinger sample for Delphi
Face identification
FacesSampleWX.exe VeriLook sample for wxWidgets C++ library
FacesSamplePas.exe VeriLook sample for Delphi
Iris identification
IrisesSampleWX.exe VeriEye sample for wxWidgets C++ library

Large-scale AFIS and multi-biometric

AbisSampleCS.exe MegaMatcher sample for C#
AbisSampleVB.exe MegaMatcher sample for VB.NET
abis-sample-java.bat MegaMatcher sample for Java
ConfigAssistant.exe Configure and launch matching server which can be used by ABIS samples. Two kinds
are possible: single computer matching server (NServer) or distributed matching server (NClusterServer should be
started followed by specified number of NClusterNodes)
Device management
DevicesSampleCS.exe NDevices usage sample for C#
DevicesSampleVB.exe NDevices usage sample for VB.NET
Linux
Directory Bin\Linux_x86\ or Bin\Linux_x86_64\ depending on platform:
Fingerprint identification
./FingersSampleWX VeriFinger sample for wxWidgets C++ library
Face identification
./FacesSampleWX VeriLook sample for wxWidgets C++ library
Iris identification
./IrisesSampleWX VeriEye sample for wxWidgets C++ library
Large-scale AFIS and multi-biometric
./run_NServer.CONFIG.sh Start NServer (single computer matching server) with appropriate configuration
./NClusterServer/run_NClusterServer.CONFIG.sh Start NClusterServer (distributed matching server) with
appropriate configuration. Note: Number of nodes specified in the configuration file should also be started afterwards
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./NClusterNode/run_NClusterNode.CONFIG.sh Start NClusterNode with appropriate configuration

Mac OS X
Directories Bin\MacOSX_universal\.
FingersSampleWX.app VeriFinger sample for wxWidgets C++ library
FacesSampleWX.app VeriLook sample for wxWidgets C++ library
IrisesSampleWX.app VeriEye sample for wxWidgets C++ library
./run_NServer.CONFIG.sh Start NServer with appropriate configuration

4 API essentials
Neurotechnology Biometric SDK contains these libraries:
NBiometrics - provides functionality for working with biometric data.
NBiometricStandards - provides functionality of supported biometric standards.
NBiometricTools - functions for working with biometrical tools, like fingerprint classifier.
NCluster - provides functions for working with cluster server.
NCore - provides infrastructure for all Nuerotechnology components.
NDeviceManager - manages devices (fingerprint scanners, irises scanners or cameras).
NImages - loads, saves or converts images in various formats.
NLicensing - manages licenses of Neurotechnology products.
More details can be found in the "Neurotec Biometric SDK.pdf" document located in Documentation directory.

This section will introduce some of most important aspects of the API, which are used in the most of developed applications:
obtaining licenses, features extraction and template identification.

4.1 Licensing
As mentioned in the Installation ( page 1) section, activation step is necessary for correct operation of the libraries. The
activation service provides the licenses for separate functionalities. Application wishing to use particular functionality must
obtain appropriate license from the activation service. Using copy protected libraries without obtaining licenses will result in
an NotActivated exception/error code.
Licenses are obtained by calling NLicenseObtainComponents function (NLicense.ObtainComponents method in
object oriented API) with these arguments:
address the address of licensing service (usually "/local");
port the port of licensing service ("5000" in default installation);
components special string specifying type of functionality, for example: "Biometrics.FingerExtraction",
"Biometrics.FaceMatching" and so on;
Additional output argument isAvailable is used in non object oriented API. The value of argument is set to true if
requested license is available.
After licenses are successfully obtained functions from copy protected libraries can be called.
NLicenseReleaseComponents function (NLicense.ReleaseComponents method) should be called when licenses are
no longer used or before the application exits.
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For complete list of possible values of components parameters see NLicenseObtainComponents function description in
API Reference chapter of "Neurotec Biometric SDK.pdf".
Notes
It is also possible to use activation service on remote computer (without running it locally). The hostname or IP address
should be given in the address argument for NLicenseObtainComponents function (instead of the "/local"). This method is
only supported when Volume License Managing is used.

4.2 Features Extraction

Using the MegaMatcher 4.0, VeriFinger 6.3, VeriLook 5.0 and VeriEye 2.3 SDK, images are not compared directly, they
have to be converted to template - compact representations of biometric characteristics such as fingerprint, face or iris. The
process is called Features Extraction throughout the SDK and the modules performing this are called Extractors.
Note: Images have to be in grayscale format, NImageToGrayscale function (NImage.ToGrayscale method) can be used if
conversion is needed.
Extractors
Because the SDK supports multiple kinds of biometric information there is a separate Extractor for each kind:
NFExtractor extraction of features form finger/palm print images (see: NfeExtract function or
NFExtractor.Extract method);
NLExtractor extraction of features form face images (see: NleExtract function or NLExtractor.Extract
method);
NEExtractor extraction of features form iris images (see: NeeExtract function or NEExtractor.Extract method).
Please notice the naming convention, where NF/NL/NE prefixes are used for VeriFinger/VeriLook/VeriEye.
Templates
Extracted features are stored in templates, and again there are several types of them:
NFRecord, NLRecord and NERecord contain information about one fingerprint, face or iris;
NFTemplate, NLTemplate and NETemplate contain information about persons multiple fingerprint, several face
impressions or both irides;
NTemplate can combine all the information about a person (fingerprints, face and irides).
Generalization

Features generalization combines features from several extracted images of the same fingerprint or face into a single
features collection. The generalization can be used during fingerprint/face enrollment to ensure that only the best quality
fingerprint/face template will be stored into database.
With generalization enrolled features are more reliable and the fingerprint/face recognition quality considerably increases.
Please check NfeGeneralize/NleGeneralize function or NFExtractor/NLExtractor.Generalize method in API
reference.

4.3 Identification
Neurotechnology SDK can perform 1:1 matching (verification), as well as 1:N mode comparison (identification). As
mentioned in previous section both types of checks are performed on the templates rather than the images. Module
performing this biometric comparison is called Matcher. Though specialized matchers for particular template kind (for
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example NFMatcher for NFRecord comparison or NlsMatcher for NLTemplate) are still available, their use is
deprecated. It is advised to use the general NMatcher with all kinds of templates (appropriate matching functionality will be
used automatically).
Identification
So following functions can be used for identification of all templates:
NMIdentifyStart (NMatcher.IdentifyStart method) is given the template to be identified;
NMIdentifyNext (NMatcher.IdentifyNext method) is called N times (once with each template from known set);
NMIdentifyEnd (NMatcher.IdentifyEnd method).
Verification
1:1 matching can be performed with general NMVerify function (NMatcher.Verify method).

Please refer to the API Reference chapter of "Neurotec Biometric SDK.pdf" for more information about this and other
functions.

5 What's next
The SDK includes various source code examples for different programming languages. These examples are not only a
valuable resource in learning API, customers can also reuse the code in their applications.
Examples come in two flavors:
Tutorials, which are usually small application demonstrating particular operation;
Samples are bigger GUI applications which are more complete.
Check the sources in Tutorials and Samples directories of extracted SDK. Some description can also be found in
chapters with the same names in "Neurotec Biometric SDK.pdf".