The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) this month released the Biometric Application Resource Kit (MBARK). MBARK is, according to a NIST release: "A set of modern software libraries, example applications and public-domain source code that may be leveraged to develop the next-generation of biometric and personal identity verification applications." It provides a consistent user interface regardless of sensor, and XML allows sensor interoperability via "plug ins" as well as "on the fly" workflow changes.
"MBARK was originally envisioned as a targeted application to be used to collect a large-scale database of face, fingerprint, and iris images," said NIST. "Since then, however, the software has broadened into a set of libraries enabling a much wider variety of uses. For example, a custom MBARK-based application is currently being deployed in a NIST 10-print usability."
MBARK downloads are free from the NIST Image Group
Open Source Server.