I'm working on a Biometric/Smart Card Based Identification system. The idea is to issue Contactless Mifare Cards with card holder's fingerprint on the Smart Card which will allow the use of a simple/light application for verification of life fingerprints against the one stored on the card.
The programming language of choice VB.NET 2010.

An AET62 smart card reader/fingerprint scanner has been acquired, but the sample VB.NET application that accompanies the SDK crashes. I've been chatting with a representative of ACR (the manufacturers) and different things have been suggested. I've tried their suggestions and my own ideas to resolve this issue for days now but no solution. I've tried it with Visual Studio 2008, Visual Studio 2010 Premium and Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate all on 64 bit Windows 7 and have gotten the same crash. I've downloaded and installed microsoft updates for the OS on my laptop and updates for Visual Studio. I have also tested on another laptop. In fact this AET62 is the 2nd Card Reader device acquired, the first was an ACR1281U-C1 reader which we had planned to use in conjunction with a Digital Persona Fingerprint scanner. We were also experiencing crashes with this first reader. We got the 2nd reader because it is easier to program it since it was designed with this type of project in mind (reason for it being a combo Card Reader/Fingerprint Scanner).

Meanwhile an already compiled Banking Demo application that demonstrates the use of the device works without crash. The AET fingerprint reader is a swipe type. The crashh mostly occurs when there is a more than 3 seconds delay in swiping when prompted.

Has anyone worked with a similar project? Any suggestions? I've ran out of ideas.

Hi, could you paste the stack trace from the debugger.

kadeer: Hi, could you paste the stack trace from the debugger.

@Kadeer, thank you for responding.

I don't have that. I just found out the exact line that causes the error this morning. It's a function call pasted below;

BSApi.ABSGetLastErrorInfo(code, message)

The function ABSGetLastErrorInfo is defined in a library named bsapi.dll.

Following is the line in BSApi class that associates BSApi.ABSGetLastErrorInfo with the bsapi.dll library;
Public Declare Function ABSGetLastErrorInfo Lib "bsapi.dll" (ByRef pErrorCode As Integer, ByRef ppErrorMessage As String) As Integer

The exception occurs in the library and I believe it is not escalated hence even when I placed the BSApi.ABSGetLastErrorInfo(code, message) statement within a Try...Catch block, the exception is not trapped.

And in this scenerio, I can't find the stack trace.

However, this discovery of the line that causes the crash is a bit helpful. I'm considering just disabling that line even though the end-user will be missing that extra information on the exact error which that very line places in the message parameter. At least if there is no other crash, I could manage that. Meanwhile this error does not occur on the x86 version of the same sample code when compiled on a 32 bit machine. It's just this x64 version on 64 bit machines that is crashing.

When I explained this find to the support personnel from the manufacturers, she was saying I should just warn the user to make sure a finger is swiped, that it is normal. Could you imagine. As for the timeout of 3 seconds, they could not even determine where it is set whether in code or in the firmware. I got the support from their philipine office, I think they are in charge of this region. ACR HQ is in Hong Kong.

@ kadeer and uken73 , is there any difference between

1- Fingerprint scanner smartcard reader
and
2- Fingerprint scanner smartcard writer.

for enrolment, storage to HDD or cloud or both synchronously, authentication or verification.

let us talk business with my email below

manmidtexy@yahoo.com

manmidtexy:
@ kadeer and uken73 , is there any difference between

1- Fingerprint scanner smartcard reader
and
2- Fingerprint scanner smartcard writer.

for enrolment, storage to HDD or cloud or both synchronously, authentication or verification.

let us talk business with my email below

manmidtexy@yahoo.com

Sorry I'm no longer using the account @Uken73.

Finger print scanner is a device that can capture finger prints into Fingerprint Templates which can be stored to a drive, Smart Card or any other storage media. Previously scanned finger prints can be matched with a live capture for identification/verification purpose.

A smart card (typically the size of a standard ID card or ATM card) is an electronic card, ie a card with an embedded chip for storage. It can be a contact card (like the ATM cards which the chip's contacts are exposed) or a contactless card (chip hidden in the card).

The device that accesses a smart card for storing (writing) or retrieving (reading) data is called a writer or reader (most perform both functions).

A can get a standalone fingerprint scanner. You can also get a standalone SmartCard Reader/Writer. And there are also several combo devices that combine both Fingerprint Scanner & SmartCard Reader/Writer.

I hope that is clear enough.