Windows 95/98/NT and 2000 standalone solution for BioID person authentication system

System Requirements

CPU: Pentium 233 MHz or faster, Pentium II recommended

RAM Size: 64 MB, 128 MB recommended

Hard Disk Capacity:
BioID SOHO Program: 25 MB
BioID Database: 12 MB, 45 MB recommended

CCD Camera: PAL, NTSC, color or b/w

Image Resolution: PAL/2 with 25 fps or NTSC/2 with 30 fps
Optional Video Capture Configurations:
- USB Camera (Win 95/98 and 2000 only)
- Frame Grabber and Sound Card (Win 95/98/NT and 2000)
- Complete video conferencing setup with Microsoft Direct Show interface

Microphone: 50-15.000 Hz frequency response

Before you install BioID SOHO...

Please check that the camera and microphone function properly. Both of these devices are essential for biometric authentication with BioID.

• The camera can be best checked using the video software provided by the camera's manufacturer.
• You can conduct the microphone test by using the audio recorder feature, which can be found under start/program/accessories/multimedia. Simply make a short recording and check its playback was successful.

1. Insert the BioID SOHO CD into the CD-ROM drive of your PC.
2. The installation routine starts automatically. Choose Install BioID SOHO from the next two menus.
3. After you agree to the BioID End User License Agreement the BioID SOHO files will be installed either in the designated folder, or in a new folder which you create.
4. Now the automated program installation takes place.
5. Click on Restart to restart your PC. The installation is finished.

To begin...

Automatic Configuration of Video and Audio Components

During this step, the BioID Configuration Wizard checks and configures the video and audio hardware installed on your system. Normally BioID can do this automatically, but some camera drivers do not work with the automatic configuration. In this case you have to make all settings manually, as described in the section called Troubleshooting.

Configure Video

See Troubleshooting

Configure Audio

See Troubleshooting

Database Limit

BioID SOHO watches your Database size. If your Database is greater than your max. preferences then BioID SOHO will reduce your Database. If you have enough capacity on your hard disk, please use the default values as set. A significant limitation of the database size can reduce the program's performance.

For each identification and enrollment event, BioID stores a still video image, the event date, and the result of the identification in the database. Each of these log entries requires about 100 KB disk space. If you want to keep a record of a larger number of login attempts, increase the amount of hard drive space allocated to the database.

Note: Do not set the database limit to exceed 1 GB. (max. database size less than 1GB)

Screenshot: Validating hardware configuration

Personal Information

Name

Please enter your first and your last name. If you do not have a user name and password for this PC because the Windows login authentication is not yet activated, you can define these personal access codes right here in this step.

Note: If you mistype your already existing user name and password in this step, you change the profile and windows 95 or 98 settings you are used to work with because you have in effect created a new user account. When you log in with BioID you will not see your usual desktop.

Greeting

Here you enter a personal greeting message, which will appear in the BioID Login Window after a positive identification.

You can also select an audio greeting, i.e. a WAV file to be played, or you can enter a text phrase which will then be played by the text-to-speech converter. Click Play to hear the text being converted and spoken.

Screenshot: Personal Information

Creating Your Personal Reference Data

Before BioID SOHO will recognize you in the future, the program needs to learn to recognize you. Therefore, reference data - the BioID reference template - is created and stored in the system. This reference template consists of a digital representation of five recordings of personal traits - "patterns" - extracted from your face, voice, and lip movement while speaking. Click Record Pattern to start the recording process.

Note: By clicking Next you can skip this step. However you can use this option only if you have already recorded the required patterns during an earlier session.

Screenshot: Record Pattern

Recording Your Biometric Traits

The message Press record to proceed in the message line of the login- window indicates that BioID SOHO is ready to record a pattern. The system first tries to locate your face: you can see how the system uses a rectangle to frame your face, and the two ellipses to match with the position of your eyes.

If the distance from the camera is too far, or you try to record a pattern under strongly backlit conditions, the face finder does not appear. Please make sure that the distance between your face and the camera is about 50 cm, and your face is well lit compared to the room behind you.

If the face finder has found your face, please click Record to start the recording (or press the Enter key on your keyboard). Keep your head still and say your name or other phrase you want to use. The actual one-second recording of the sequence is triggered by your voice as soon as it exceeds the level set with the Threshold slider.

Notes:

Pronounce your name or password clearly with a calm voice, in the way you typically introduce yourself to another person. It is not necessary to try to speak a long name or phrase hastily within one second; BioID SOHO recognizes your lip movement and the first part of the phrase, not the complete phrase or name spoken.

A sound from the environment can also trigger the recording, even if you have not started to speak. The Threshold slide control allows you to adjust the sensitivity of the microphone input according to the actual environmental noise conditions. (see: Threshold — Adjusting the system to background noise)

Checklist for Pattern Recording:

1. Position your face towards the camera until the ellipses are matching with your eye's positions. (adjust light conditions if necessary)
2. Click Record and look into the camera keeping your head still.
3. Speak your name or recognition phrase.

Check the Recording

It is important to check the quality of the newly-recorded pattern. You should see your face in the upper left frame; your eyes should be open and your mouth region should be clearly visible -- similar to the sample image in the lower left frame. View the video and audio sequence by clicking the Play Button .

Your voice must be clearly heard, and the recording must not be distorted by a background noise (telephone ringing, door clapping, etc.) Also make sure that your head has not moved during the recording.

You should delete a poor recording by clicking Delete, and record a new pattern instead. If the recording is good, you make the next one by clicking Record. The Configuration Wizard repeats this procedure until you have made at least five usable recordings.

Check List for Recording Quality:

1. The appearance of the still image is close to the synthetic sample image, i.e. eyes opened, mouth region well visible.
2. The head does not move during the video sequence.
3. The audio sequence is not distorted and contains no background noise.

Screenshot: Recording Patterns

Generation of the Reference Data

Once you have recorded five patterns, BioID SOHO extracts your biometric reference data from these video and audio recordings and creates your BioID reference template. This process may take a few minutes.

Screenshot: Creating a BioID template

The First Test

Before you use BioID for login, you have to make sure that BioID can consistently recognize you from your BioID template.

Screenshot: Test Recognition

Click Test BioID. The BioID Login Window opens, and appears the same as your previous enrollment session.

BioID Login

Check List for BioID Login:

1. Position your face towards the camera until the ellipses are matching with your eyes’ position (adjust light conditions if necessary).
2. Keeping your head still, look into the camera and click Login.
3. Speak your name (or other phrase chosen as your password).

Screenshot: BioID Login

If BioID has recognized you successfully, the status line shows your greeting message, and the audio greeting can be heard from the speakers. The button Install BioID Login is now available so you can install the BioID Login to protect your PC against unauthorized login and access. It is recommended to do a few test logins before enabling the BioID Login.

Note: If you work under difficult lighting or noise conditions, or if the camera or microphone is not working or connected incorrectly BioID might not recognize you. Thus you cannot login to the system.

A solution to this problem is described in the section Creating additional patterns

Creating additional patterns

BioID requires at least 5 recordings of your face, voice and lip-movement characteristics to create a BioID reference template. The accuracy of the system may be improved by additional recordings, especially if BioID is expected to recognize you under widely differing lighting conditions (e.g. daylight, artificial light, or with a notebook that is used in different locations). In order to update your BioID reference template, please follow these steps:

1. Launch the BioID SOHO application.
2. In all the screens, click the Continue button, until you reach the Record Pattern screen.
3. Click the Record Pattern button.
4. Make 2-3 recordings as described above in Recording your Biometric Traits.
5. Finally, click the Continue button — BioID will update your reference template automatically with the newly-recorded patterns.

Set Parameters for Recognition

BioID SOHO identifies a user through several different biometric traits. Therefore there is a possibility to choose from different recognition strategies or to change the weight of the different traits for the classification process.

This however requires profound knowledge of the BioID classification system, which cannot be provided within this brief documentation. Thus we recommend that you leave the default values unchanged or make notes prior to any changes.

Warning: Do not change any classification parameters unless you have first de-activated the BioID Login as described above! Check your recognition success with Test Login as described above, before re-activating BioID Login.

Important Note:

Please consider the possible varying lightening conditions at your workplace. If, for example, you recorded all five patterns under artificial lighting, it is possible that recognition will be difficult or even fail in bright daylight. For this reason it is recommended to make additional recordings under daylight conditions before you install and activate the BioID Login (see below: Creating Additional Patterns).

Installation of BioID Login

Screenshot: Install BioID Login

Click Install BioID Login. A security dialog appears. Please read it carefully! If you confirm to continue, BioID Login is installed on your computer. Installation is complete after a restart of the system.

Using BioID Login...

After you install BioID Login and restart your Computer BioID replaces your Windows Login. Click Login and say your name or phrase. If BioID recognizes you successfully, the status line shows your greeting message, and the audio greeting can be heard from the speakers. Then your Windows Desktop comes up.

Screenshot: BioID Login

Press Shutdown to close the Login Window and shut down your Computer. If you are using the Windows Screensaver with password protection and BioID Login is activated, the Screensaver also brings up the BioID Login screen.

Uninstall BioID Login

There are 2 ways to deactivate the BioID Login

1. Launch the BioID SOHO program and click Next until you reach the screen "Test Recognition”. Click Uninstall BioID Login and restart your computer.
   
   
   Screenshot: Uninstall BioID-Login
   
2. Click on Start in the task bar, choose Settings/Control Panel, and open Add/Remove Programs. You select BioID Login in the program list and press Add/Remove.... Restart your computer. To uninstall BioID SOHO please see "Uninstall BioID SOHO...".

Use the Configuration Manager if you need to:

• delete patterns of low quality
• delete all patterns to enroll a new user

Checking the Login Attempts

BioID records all Login attempts with a snapshot, date and identification result (i.e. the User’s name or ’rejected‘). To review this log, open the folder Classifications in the Settings window, and the log entries will be displayed at right.

Important note: Some of the parameters that may be changed in the Configuration Manager, such as the Classification settings, are meant for trained system administrators and should not normally be changed. If you are interested, you can find more information about these features and about BioID on our web site at www.bioid.com.

Screenshot: Configuration Manager

Uninstall BioID SOHO...

To completely remove BioID SOHO from your computer, please uninstall BioID Login first. After restarting your System, you can uninstall BioID SOHO:

The configuration of the A/V hardware did not take place automatically...

Configure Video

• Image Resolution: less than 320x240 Pixels
• Frame Rate: 25 fps

Threshold — Adjusting the system to background noise...

An unintended noise in the background (a ringing telephone, a slamming door, a doorbell, etc.) may trigger the recording even if you have not started to speak. Therefore you can adjust the microphone sensitivity with the slide control Threshold to a higher or lower level. While speaking normally, increase the threshold setting until only the audio level of your voice -- shown as a dynamic bar graph -- exceeds the blue threshold marker.

Recognition Failure with BioID Login Installed...

For Windows 95/98 users:

If BioID Login is installed and activated, and if you work under difficult lighting or noise conditions, or if the camera is not working or connected correctly, BioID might not recognize you. In this case you cannot log in to the system. What can be done?

Instructions:

1. After Windows NT/2000 has booted, you are prompted to press Control-Alt-Del in order to call the BioID Login procedure. To bypass BioID, you press Control-Alt-X instead of Control-Alt-Del. This invokes a backdoor login routine and you are asked to enter the unlock password.
   With BioID SOHO the default unlock password is BioIDLogin.
   Remark: This password cannot be altered in BioID SOHO.
2. Now you login to your PC with the regular Windows NT/2000 login, entering your Windows NT/2000 user name, password and domain (if any). In the future you may either use this unlock option until you have the camera re-installed, or you may remove BioID Login from your system.
3. To do so, click on Start in the task bar, choose Settings/Control Panel, and open Add/Remove Programs. You select BioID Login in the program list and press Add/Remove... Restart your System.
   BioID Login is now removed from your system.
4. After restarting the computer you access your PC via the regular Windows NT/2000 login.