I released libdpfp 0.2.0 yesterday. This library allows you to capture images from Microsoft/DigitalPersona fingerprint scanners. Download link.

It does not yet include the more advanced image enhancement code which I wrote about recently, I will be adding that soon. The big change in this release is that it drops dependence on a kernel-side driver and having to upload firmware. libdpfp is now standalone.

Not requiring firmware avoids the potential distribution issues we had: we don’t have the rights to distribute their firmware. It is now not required because the device stores it, and even brand new devices seem to ship with the firmware already saved on the device. One reason we might need the firmware again is to disable encryption, but I’m reasonably confident we can do that without a firmware image — just waiting for someone who has a device which is encrypting images to come along so that I can test a theory.

The kernel-side driver is no longer required, all USB I/O is now done inside libdpfp itself, through libusb. This simplifies things for users quite substantially, and it’s much nicer writing drivers in userspace than in the kernel. It also means that ports to BSD and even Windows are now realistically possible (if someone contributes the code!), and means good things for users running old kernels on embedded devices.

Bug reports and questions belong on the mailing list, not in comments on this weblog entry. Thanks!