Just a random thought

[Dexterr]

Hey guys, a friend of mine(which he likes to be called Cali) suggested to create a system,or,better,lets say a Program, that uses fingerprint scanning(scanned from a fingerprint scanner appropriately of course :P) to confirm a students attendance in lectures, now what im thinking, technically,and code-wise, it should be possible to read an image and compare it with one in a stored internal database, right? But what is troubling me most, is is C++ the best choice to code that kind of program? Or maybe what would your suggestions be for the best coding language for this kind of program.

[Ganado]

Of course it's possible. The language really isn't that important for a small thing like that, maybe some back-end algorithm stuff would be done in C++, other server communication or database accessing would be done in PHP or something (I don't have experience in PHP so that might be wrong).

Coding aside, I think that would be putting technology in places where it really would just make things more annoying. If you want to make lecture something students "have" to go to, you have in-class quizzes or whatever as incentives. There are plenty of alternatives than having students give personal information like fingerprints uploaded to some database just for class attendance.

Imagine having 200 students at a time have to line up to use the mandatory fingerprint-scanning machine just to get into a lecture hall. Foremost, it's just a waste of time, imo, and possibly breach of privacy depending on who has access to those records. Isn't an ID card good enough?
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Edit: This got me interested, found a library called libfprint, written in C to do fingerprint analysis.

[ResidentBiscuit]

What is the point in forcing students to go to lectures? If they want to pay thousands of dollars to skip class, then let them. Chances are the students who skip class consistently will do poor on tests.

[Dexterr]

i completely agree with both of you, and indeed it is a breach of privacy at some degree, however, this program is meant to be used for Flexing purposes if you get what i mean, not actually to be implemented in a real situation and/or university. Thanks for the libfprint library headsup, gonna look into that :)

[Computergeek01]

Just a note, modern fingerprint scanners such as those found on laptops don't authenticate based on a picture. They 'scan' the pattern on the finger and generate a numerical hash, that is how they are able to be used with existing authentication services. So this project is actually much easier then you're making it out to be since you're not actually dealing with comparing images.

[z05DSL3A]

You may find the datasheets and such here interesting:
http://www.adh-tech.com.tw/?9,gt-511c3-gt-511c31-(uart)

[Dexterr]

Thanks for all your input on this guys, especially @ComputerGeek01 , this is why im trying to be more active on the forums and such,to learn as much as i can, i am practicing my C++ every day as hard as i can, and this is why the seemingly useless ideas or stupid should i say, or coming through here to discuss, really appreciated :)

[fabtasticwill]

Sounds like a good idea. If your comparing the images, it would help to make them 16 bit or 8 bit, so the'res less colors to deal with.

[Dexterr]

thanks for the suggestion fabtasticwill, much appreciated :)