Introduction

Welcome to the Colorado Children’s Identification Program or “kIDs” for short. The kIDs program to this point has been over two years in the making; it was started at the request of M.W.Bro. Richard W. Schmidt P.G.M of Masons in Colorado 2005 and M.W.Bro. Thomas J. Cox P.G.M. of Masons in Colorado 2006 and under the direction of R.W.Bro. John H. Buchanan Grand Lecturer of Masons in Colorado.

The name kIDs should not limit the use of this program to just “kids” because it has been crafted in a manner that makes it useful for all age groups with fully programmable outputs configurable to differing needs. We have many Lodges that use this program to identify Alzheimer patients at Retirement Centers and High School students at Proms, just to name a couple of applications.

The program itself has come a long way since the original concept, and was debuted as version 1. This version would only collect left and right Index fingers along with one camera image, although it proved the point that the idea was sound. We received many reports from users with feature requests and graphic user interface layout suggestions. All-in-all the program proved the point and several Lodges throughout the state of Colorado signed up and paid the $400.00 fee for the hardware and software. To all of these Lodges, you are the trail blazers and you have our heartfelt thanks. Without these Lodges stepping up to the plate, the program would have died at this point.

Version 2 was not widely released as it was always seen as the stepping stone version. While version 2 was being wrapped up and even more Lodges were taking up this opportunity, the company that supplied the driver for the fingerprint scanner filed for bankruptcy protection in South Africa. Although they supplied us with the keys needed it was not a situation that had a long-term future so we were in need of a new fingerprint driver.

In the last quarter of 2006 M.W.Bro. Tom J. Cox, then Grand Master of Masons in Colorado, asked if we could find a fingerprint scanner driver that was Royalty Free, thus removing the need for a software protection device that was seen as the main obstacle to the universal acceptance of the program in Colorado. It was understood that this would require a complete rewrite of major parts of the program, and it was also M.W.Bro. Tom J. Cox’s desire that the new version be available at M.W.Bro. John J. Harrington’s installation in January 2007.

As with any software project, a few months brings on many changes and what was now called version 3 had to encompass them all. Version 3 should be Royalty Free, which is not Shareware or Freeware, but the software itself would be supplied free of charge to charitable organizations with all rights belonging to the Grand Lodge of Colorado. We would adopt a new license system that would allow Lodges or organizations to run multiple copies of the software by using the same key, but each Lodge or organization should have its own key which would be issued for free by the Grand Lodge of Colorado, simply as a means of tracking the users of the software.

Version 3 is the single biggest leap forward for this program since the proof-of-principle in version 1. It was to interface with not only the Digital Persona U are U 4000B fingerprint scanner but with the Microsoft fingerprint scanner too. It had to interface with any video source whether it was via a Web camera, Frame Grabber or Professional Motion camera. The program should be a true managed code application based on Microsoft’s Dot Net platform and be capable of running on Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Vista.

One of the major requests we received was to have the program output in Spanish. While looking into this request, it was decided that we should adopt French if we were going to support Spanish. Thus Version 3 can be run in the user’s native language as well as output in the end user’s native language giving us the best of both worlds. It goes without saying that the program can be run in English and output in English but it is also possible to output the same information in Spanish and French if needed and time permits.

Late January 2007, version 3 was debuted at the Colorado Grand Lodge’s Annual Communication. It had a complete new look and feel, it was Royalty Free, it contained all requests for changes, it was Dot Net based and it ran on Vista!

It is hoped that at some point in 2007, the end user will be able obtain a license key directly from our Web Site [http://www.coloradofreemasons.org or from the private site of the Developer http://www.therastershop.com/kids], but the up-to-date version of the Colorado kIDs program is available for download free of charge over the Web.

Once again, the Grand Lodge of Colorado and I, the Developer of the application, have to thank each and every Lodge. That were one of the original trail blazers for the funding the Software Development Toolkits and license fees needed; without you we could not have moved past proof-of-principle.

Thanks,

W.Bro. Ashley S. Buss P.M.
Developer
103 Orion Street,
Golden, Colorado.