Forum: Ruby on Rails Biometrics fingerprint scanner in RoR? Is it possible? and how?

I'm a graduating student of IT right now and in a couple of months, 
we'll
be starting on a new project in the University. My group and I decided 
to
create a voting system which requires Fingerprint scanner to identify 
the
voters and make the voting process more secured. I still don't know how
biometrics fingerprint scanner works exactly and I've just started to do
some research.

So my question is, is it even possible that RoR can use a biometrics
fingerprint scanner?

I've been searching the net (until now) if there are some tutorials or 
tips
that could help me do this project using RoR..

Hi!

On Mon, Sep 17, 2012 at 12:45 PM, RoR newbie <johnelauria@yahoo.com> 
wrote:

> I'm a graduating student of IT right now and in a couple of months, we'll
> be starting on a new project in the University. My group and I decided to
> create a voting system which requires Fingerprint scanner to identify the
> voters and make the voting process more secured. I still don't know how
> biometrics fingerprint scanner works exactly and I've just started to do
> some research.
>
> So my question is, is it even possible that RoR can use a biometrics
> fingerprint scanner?
>

I'm pretty sure that the biometrics fingerprint scanner should be able 
to
output something if a user is a registered voter or not.  You just have
to hook this something into the database to check who the current voter 
is.
 So overall, the question is not really if you can do this with rails, 
it's
if the fingerprint scanner gives you flexibility to do this.

I've been searching the net (until now) if there are some tutorials or 
tips
> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
>
>
>



--

Firstly, it doesn't seem right to make a decision while you are still
unsure if that is doable by the deadline. In theory I don't see why it
couldn't be possible, just it could require a lot of work. But isn't it 
the
point for your group of educated people to come up with something in 
such a
project thus enriching the knowledge available for RoR community?

P.S. I gather from your post that this is a non-commercial project 
designed
to prove your expertise in the field.

2012/9/17 Jim Ruther Nill <jvnill@gmail.com>

On Sep 16, 2012, at 8:45 PM, RoR newbie wrote:

> I'm a graduating student of IT right now and in a couple of months, we'll be 
starting on a new project in the University. My group and I decided to create a 
voting system which requires Fingerprint scanner to identify the voters and make 
the voting process more secured. I still don't know how biometrics fingerprint 
scanner works exactly and I've just started to do some research.
>
> So my question is, is it even possible that RoR can use a biometrics fingerprint 
scanner?
>
> I've been searching the net (until now) if there are some tutorials or tips that 
could help me do this project using RoR..

This is not a rails question at all. It's a web browser & fingerprint 
scanner question.

Is there any way to access fingerprint scanner results from a web 
browser? If so, using RoR to handle the backend of the web application 
is no different than any other web app. If not, rails certainly can't 
help you around that roadblock.

--
Scott Ribe
scott_ribe@elevated-dev.com
http://www.elevated-dev.com/
(303) 722-0567 voice

On Sep 17, 2012, at 12:14 PM, Scott Ribe wrote:

> Is there any way to access fingerprint scanner results from a web browser? If 
so, using RoR to handle the backend of the web application is no different than 
any other web app. If not, rails certainly can't help you around that roadblock.
A lot of these external hardware devices talk to the host computer over 
USB, and some I have used (barcode scanners) basically pretend to be a 
keyboard typing really fast. I have no idea how your fingerprint reader 
is meant to interact with the host computer, but I would start by 
reading its manual and figuring out how it was meant to connect to a 
stand-alone PC. Then see how you can go from there. You could have a 
button to "start" the scanner, which would use JavaScript to shift focus 
to a hidden text field and wait for the scanner to "type" the results 
into that field. Poll the field for changes, and after a change and a 
pause (to avoid catching it half-way through a change) send the form to 
your Rails server. The rest, as others have said here, is as easy as 
Rails.

Walter

>
> This is not a rails question at all. It's a web browser & fingerprint
> scanner question.


> Is there any way to access fingerprint scanner results from a web browser?
> If so, using RoR to handle the backend of the web application is no
> different than any other web app. If not, rails certainly can't help you
> around that roadblock.


Not technically a web browser question, as you could use a native app to
handle the interface with the user, the fingerprint scanner, and the
backend.  However, as Rails is only the backend, there is still no way 
this
can be construed to be a Rails question.

Jim