v2.0.0

What Is It?

The iProov Web SDK is now generally available, which officially brings the power of iProov Genuine Presence Assurance to web browsers on desktop, laptops, tablets, mobile devices, and kiosk environments.

How to get it?

The SDK is available as a JavaScript package on NPM which which is detailed on the GitHub page.

iProov Web can be integrated as part of a user journey on any modern browser. The iProov Android and iOS SDKs can be used within WebView based mobile apps, ensuring a consistent user experience with minimal additional integration effort.

Integration

The iProov Web SDK is shipped as a standards-based Web Component, which means that it can be integrated in virtually any frontend framework. Integrators can set options using the standard DOM attribute scheme, either through the tag itself or programmatically with JavaScript.

The web component emits its lifecycle events using the standards based CustomEvent model.

In terms of frameworks, iProov provides integration guides which are available for various modern frontend frameworks, as well as for ‘vanilla’ Javascript:

• jQuery
• Angular
• ReactJS
• VueJS

Full integration documentation is available on GitHub.

What is new in iProov Web v2.0

Use of WASM to replace WebRTC

• Using WASM for encoding is a remarkable technical leap forward from WebRTC
  • Enables lossless compression of imagery, which allows iProov to analyse camera quality images with full detail, improving the biometric testing accuracy
  • Selective encoding and streaming enables the SDK to send minimal imagery required to reduce the bandwidth constraints for streaming
• WebRTC has been entirely removed, which increases the operating envelope to include a wider range of software and network environments which would not otherwise support WebRTC

Improved User Interface (UI)

• Use of new “shaded” and “vibrant” UI options for visualising the abstracted user face, for higher user success and acceptability
• Scanning line which indicates the progress through the capture, which reduces cognitive load during capture

Kiosk Mode

• iProov Web Kiosk Mode is a significant new capability and optimises iProov Web for fixed hardware in locations such as service centres, transport hubs or bank branches
• Kiosk Mode adopts a wholly different user experience including an innovative face tracking feature which moves the user’s face into the centre of the screen, simulating a moving camera
• Kiosk Mode has been tested and developed in conjunction with government agencies providing public service centres. It is specifically designed for accessibility to a wide range of demographics, across age and digital literacy
• Kiosk Mode can be called with a flag when loading the web SDK on a per-transaction basis. This allows integrators the choose to invoke either Kiosk Mode or the standard mobile/desktop user experience

New biometric tests optimised for web traffic

• iProov has designed and deployed a suite of new biometric tests which are optimised for analysing web traffic
• These new tests accelerate the overall transaction speed to improve the user experience and shorten the transaction time

Ability to integrate with enterprise applications

• iProov Web provides a new capability which supports the integration with commonly used Enterprise applications including Active Directory. This enables iProov to be used as a primary or secondary factor for federated enterprise access management

Feature: lightweight compatibility checker

• iProov has bundled within the SDK, a light feature which checks before loading the SDK whether the hardware and software environment can support the iProov Web service. This means that users can “fail fast” if they don’t have the right support, and receive the right message eg. upgrade your browser / switch to another browser etc

Customisation

iProov Web maintains a close alignment with the iProov native SDKs, allowing a wide range of control for integrators who want to move beyond the default configuration.

Control during loading

• Integrators can now control the user interface during the loading phase, while the SDK continues to pass loading events until the process completes - this allows the SDK to pass control to the integrator as soon as Flashmark completes

Other UX/UI options

• Localising all strings in different languages with a simple interface for passing in new language strings
• Customise colours of UI components

Network and security

• iProov Web uses assets which are not bundled in the SDK, and so need to be accessed while the SDK is loaded. This requires network availability.
• For customers requiring all traffic from their front-end to route via their own servers, iProov has implemented an option to set all URLs for the SDK call-outs. This can connect via both reverse and forward proxy connections

Hardware and Software Support

Every effort has been made to ensure an optimised user experience across the wide range of devices and browsers that iProov supports.

The minimum base requirements for hardware are:

• A user-facing camera
• A screen
• An Internet connection

The minimum base requirements for browsers are:

• iOS, MacOS, Windows, Android and ChromeOS operating systems
• WebAssembly (WASM) support, which is now widely available
• WebGL support
• Permission granted to use the user-facing camera

If the web SDK is unable to detect a supported platform, the SDK emits an event which details the reason for lack of support, this can be used by the integrator to display a relevant message to the user.

If the user’s device is unable to complete the iProov process, our lightweight support check component can be used to guide them to a different journey.

iProov will maintain a full view of the system compatibility for each version of the client in the GitHub repository.

Operating conditions:

• iProov maintains a current list of operating conditions and minimum requirements for optimal service on the iProov Portal (login protected).