DigitalPersona/Microsoft Fingerprint Reader Driver for Linux

PROJECT CLOSED

This project has been obsoleted by the fprint project∞.

The uru4000 driver within libfprint∞ supports this hardware, and you can even use the fprint software to authenticate yourself with your fingerprint! It's more useful and less buggy than dpfp ever was.

The original website is left below.

Current Project Status

USB protocol discovery (based on Windows driver traffic) is fairly complete
We know how to turn image encryption on and off
We know how to interpret the fingerprint data
Development of userspace library (libdpfp) is underway
Early releases have been produced, see DriverDownload
Development halted due to legal concerns, see below

Project Info

This project leads the development of Linux support for Digital Persona fingerprint reader devices. These devices can also be found embedded into some Microsoft devices.

Hardware support is being developed in a userspace library (libdpfp) which uses libusb for USB I/O. libdpfp is only a prototype: as soon as we have semi-working fingerprint recognition code, we will create a new project which will support a variety of different fingerprint readers under the same API.

WINDOWS USERS

Sorry, this project is Linux-only. We cannot help you with any Windows-related tasks or issues.

DEVELOPMENT HALTED

Development of this project has been halted until concerns with US export control laws have been clarified. See ExportIssuesFAQ for more info, and ExportIssuesLegal for the information I am sending to legal experts.

A dpfp-based project will resume in September∞, but the export concerns will still affect US distributors.

UPDATE October 2007: new project will be released before the end of the year.

Supported Devices

Digital Persona U.are.U 4000
Digital Persona U.are.U 4000B
Microsoft Optical Desktop with Fingerprint Reader keyboard
Microsoft Wireless IntelliMouse Explorer with Fingerprint Reader
Microsoft Fingerprint Reader

For more info, see the SupportedDevices page.

News

2006-08-29 libdpfp-0.2.1 released∞
2006-08-16 libdpfp-0.2.0 released∞
2006-08-13 Some news on fingerprint enhancement and recognition∞
2006-03-19 libdpfp-0.1.2 and dpfp-driver-0.1.1 released∞
2006-03-16 Version 0.1 of driver and library released∞
2006-01-30 Figured out the situation with image encryption∞
2006-01-29 Figured out the image format∞ (discussion∞)
2006-01-13 Website launched∞ (also see status update∞)
2005-12-29 Driver component in almost-working state∞

Content

ProjectOverview - the components we are aiming to create and integrate
ProjectDevelopers - who's working on it
MailingList - please subscribe if you are interested in the project
DriverDownload - where you can find the current driver sources
FingerprintRecognition - the next step

DeviceIntroduction - some technical details about the device and it's driver interaction
SupportedDevices - brief information about the devices supported by the driver

DeviceDifferences - the difference between the Digital Persona and Microsoft devices
Firmware - details about the device firmware
DataF0 - mini-investigation into the "F0 data" string
ImageFormat - what we know (and what we don't) about the format in which the fingerprint data is sent from the device
SniffLogs - sniffed data from the device

MiscStuff - place to scribble stuff before we fully investigate
Berlios project page∞ - not a lot to see here

DpfpDriver : HomePage