Biometric Authentication in Web Development

Biometric authentication leverages unique physical or behavioral characteristics to verify the identity of users. In this guide, we'll explore the integration of fingerprint and face recognition for authentication in web development, providing useful examples.

Integrating Fingerprint and Face Recognition for Authentication:

Overview:

Fingerprint and face recognition are popular biometric authentication methods due to their uniqueness and convenience. To implement these in a web application, you can use APIs provided by browsers or third-party libraries.

Example (Fingerprint Authentication with Web Authentication API):

The Web Authentication API (WebAuthn) allows browsers to interact with hardware authenticators, including fingerprint sensors.

// Check for WebAuthn support
if (window.PublicKeyCredential) {
  // Request fingerprint authentication
  navigator.credentials.create({
    publicKey: {
      challenge: new Uint8Array([/* server-generated challenge */]),
      user: {
        id: new Uint8Array([/* user ID */]),
        name: 'username',
        displayName: 'User Name'
      },
      pubKeyCredParams: [{
        type: 'public-key',
        alg: -7 // Use fingerprint authenticator
      }],
      timeout: 60000, // Set a timeout for the operation
      attestation: 'direct'
    }
  })
  .then(credential => {
    // Send credential to server for verification
    // ...
  })
  .catch(error => {
    console.error('Fingerprint authentication error:', error);
  });
} else {
  console.error('WebAuthn not supported');
}

Example (Face Recognition with Third-Party Library - Face-api.js):

Face-api.js is a JavaScript library for face recognition in the browser. It utilizes the face detection and recognition capabilities of the browser.

<!-- Include face-api.js library -->
<script src="https://unpkg.com/face-api.js"></script>
 
<!-- HTML: Create a video element for face detection -->
<video id="inputVideo" width="320" height="240" autoplay></video>
 
<script>
// JavaScript: Perform face detection and recognition
const video = document.getElementById('inputVideo');
 
// Load face-api.js models
Promise.all([
  faceapi.nets.tinyFaceDetector.loadFromUri('/models'),
  faceapi.nets.faceLandmark68Net.loadFromUri('/models'),
  faceapi.nets.faceRecognitionNet.loadFromUri('/models')
]).then(startVideo);
 
// Start video stream and perform face recognition
function startVideo() {
  navigator.mediaDevices.getUserMedia({ video: {} })
    .then(stream => {
      video.srcObject = stream;
    })
    .catch(error => console.error('Error accessing camera:', error));
}
 
video.addEventListener('play', () => {
  const canvas = faceapi.createCanvasFromMedia(video);
  document.body.append(canvas);
 
  const displaySize = { width: video.width, height: video.height };
  faceapi.matchDimensions(canvas, displaySize);
 
  setInterval(async () => {
    const detections = await faceapi.detectAllFaces(video, new faceapi.TinyFaceDetectorOptions()).withFaceLandmarks().withFaceDescriptors();
    const resizedDetections = faceapi.resizeResults(detections, displaySize);
    canvas.getContext('2d').clearRect(0, 0, canvas.width, canvas.height);
    faceapi.draw.drawDetections(canvas, resizedDetections);
    faceapi.draw.drawFaceLandmarks(canvas, resizedDetections);
    faceapi.draw.drawFaceDescriptors(canvas, resizedDetections);
  }, 100);
});
</script>

In this example, face-api.js is used to perform face detection and recognition on a live video stream from the user's camera.

Conclusion:

Integrating biometric authentication, such as fingerprint and face recognition, into web applications enhances security and user experience. By utilizing browser APIs like WebAuthn for fingerprint authentication or third-party libraries like face-api.js for face recognition, developers can implement robust and user-friendly biometric authentication mechanisms. It's important to consider privacy and security aspects while implementing biometric authentication and comply with relevant standards and regulations.

PWA Authentication Workflow