“The BioAPI Consortium today announced the public release of
Version 1.0 Beta of the BioAPI Reference Implementation. This
follows the publication earlier this year of Version 1.0 of the
BioAPI Specification. The BioAPI Specification defines an open
system standard application program interface (API) which allows
software applications to communicate with a broad range of
biometric technologies. The Reference Implementation is the
software instantiation of the BioAPI framework. The announcement
was made at the Biometric Consortium 2000 Conference hosted by the
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The
Reference Implementation is available royalty-free as open source
software. It can be downloaded from the BioAPI website
(http://www.bioapi.org) or via the Biometrics Consortium website
(http://www.biometrics.org).”
“The BioAPI Framework will allow software applications to be
written to access a wide variety of biometric technologies in a
uniform manner. Version 1.0 of the Framework Reference
Implementation supports Win-32 operating systems, such as Microsoft
Windows(R) NT, ’95, ’98, and Windows 2000. It is designed for easy
porting to other operating systems, such as Linux or Unix.
Companies contributing resources to develop the Reference
Implementation include Intel, SAFLINK, IriScan, and Mytec
Technologies Inc.”
“Colin Soutar, Chief Technology Officer at Mytec Technologies
Inc. and Chair of the BioAPI Reference Implementation Working
Group, said that, “The release of the BioAPI Reference
Implementation today means that there is now a platform available
for the seamless integration of applications and biometric devices.
This will serve as a catalyst for the biometrics industry, by
providing assurance to customers that the biometrics industry has
matured to the point that a standard could not only be defined, but
is now implemented.”