v5.4.0

Breaking change:

Based on the feedback, we have restored support for x86_64 processor architecture. Due to the architecture specifics, there is no guarantee that the scanning process will work equally well as it does on the ARM architectures. The main reason for restoring support is to ease the compliance issue for developers.
We distribute SDK with ARMv7, ARM64, x86, and x86_64 native library binaries.

New features:

• We added age verification feature:
  • Now you can more easily obtain the age of the document owner in years and check whether it is above some age limit.
  • Use age and ageLimitStatus helper methods in MrzResult, BlinkIdRecognizer.Result, BlinkIdCombinedRecognizer.Result, UsdlRecognizer.Result, UsdlCombinedRecognizer.Result, and IdBarcodeRecognizer.Result.

Improvements:

• We have translated complete SDK to following languages: Croatian, Czech, English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Slovak, and Spanish.

• We added support for new document types in BlinkIdCombinedRecognizer and BlinkIdRecognizer:

  • Australia - Australian Capital Territory - Driving licence / front only
  • Australia - Northern Territory - Driving licence / BETA
  • Australia - Tasmania - Driving licence / front only / BETA
  • Canada - Alberta - ID card / BETA
  • Canada - British Columbia - Driver license / Public services card (Combined)
  • Canada - British Columbia - ID card / BETA
  • Canada - British Columbia - Public services card
  • Canada - New Brunswick - Driving license
  • Canada - Nova Scotia - Driving license / BETA
  • Canada - Yukon - Driving license / BETA
  • Panama - Driving license / front only / BETA
  • Panama - ID card / front only
  • Singapore - Work permit / BETA
  • Taiwan - ID card / front only / BETA
  • USA - Alabama - ID card
  • USA - Alaska - ID card / BETA
  • USA - District Of Columbia - Driver license / BETA
  • USA - Idaho - ID card / BETA
  • USA - Indiana - ID card / BETA
  • USA - Kentucky - ID card / BETA
  • USA - Massachusetts - ID card
  • USA - Oregon - ID card
  • USA - Washington - ID card
  • We added support for back side to:
    • Australia - Western Australia - Driving licence
    • Mexico - Voter ID
    • Netherlands - Driving licence

• Additional improvements in BlinkIdCombinedRecognizer and BlinkIdRecognizer:

  • When the back side of the document is not fully supported by the BlinkIdCombinedRecognizer, we will capture and return the back side image without performing data extraction. You can disable this behaviour by using BlinkIdCombinedRecognizer.setSkipUnsupportedBack(true).
  • We are now returning color status for the scanned document (black and white or color) in the following result fields:
    • documentImageColorStatus in BlinkIdRecognizer.Result.
    • documentFrontImageColorStatus and documentBackImageColorStatus in BlinkIdCombinedRecognizer.Result.
  • We are now returning ClassInfo which holds the following information about the scanned document: Country, Region, and Type of the document. Use BlinkIdRecognizer.Result.getClassInfo() and BlinkIdCombinedRecognizer.Result.getClassInfo().
  • We introduced ClassFilter which determines whether a document should be processed or is filtered out, based on its ClassInfo. Use BlinkIdRecognizer.setClassFilter and BlinkIdCombinedRecognizer.setClassFilter to enable it.
  • To improve the scanning performance, we added additional feedback for users that ensures a detected document is entirely inside the frame. When a document is too close to the edge of the camera frame, we will display an appropriate message to the user in BlinkIdOverlayController. You can configure the minimum distance from the edge of the frame by using the paddingEdge settings method.

• Improvements in BlinkIdOverlayController:

  • When a document is too close to the edge of the camera frame, we display Move the document from the edge message.
  • We added better user instructions when barcodes are being scanned in UsdlCombinedRecognizer. We display Scan the barcode message.

• We are now delivering the complete list of open source dependencies used in the SDK. Please check the open-source-software-used directory.

Minor API changes:

• We removed RecognizerRunnerView custom attributes: mb_initialOrientation and mb_aspectMode. Use RecognizerRunnerView.setInitialOrientation and RecognizerRunnerView.setAspectMode to configure the attributes in the code.

Bug fixes:

• We fixed bug in BlinkIdOverlayController which caused that MrtdRecognizer.Result is cleared after scanning is done and empty result is returned.

v5.3.0

Breaking change:

We decided to remove support for x86_64 processor architecture.
x86 and x86_64 architectures are used on very few devices today; most of them are manufactured before 2015 and they take about 1% of all Android devices, according to the device catalog on Google Play Console.
We distribute SDK with ARMv7, ARM64, and x86 native library binaries. Native library x86 in SDK is kept mainly for emulator support.

New features:

• We added a new recognizer specialized for scanning and parsing barcodes on various identity cards - IdBarcodeRecognizer. Supported document types are:

  • AAMVA compliant (US DL, Canada DL, etc.)
  • Argentina ID and driver license
  • Panama ID
  • Colombia ID and driver license
  • South Africa ID
  • Nigeria Voter ID and driver license

• We added the option to disable Microblink logs in the console output. Use LoggingSettings.disableMicroblinkLogging(). Be careful with this option. We need full log outputs from the application for support purposes. In case of having problems with scanning certain items, undesired behavior on the specific device(s), crashes inside SDK or anything unmentioned, we will need a full log from your side. If you disable Microblink logging, you won't be able to provide us this information. Hence support might be limited.

Improvements for existing features:

• We added new result fields in MrzResult, returned by all recognizers which scan MRZ (Machine Readable Zone):
  • issuerName
  • nationalityName
• Improvements in BlinkIdCombinedRecognizer and BlinkIdRecognizer:
  • new recognizer options: allowUnparsedMrzResults and allowUnverifiedMrzResults
  • new result field: dateOfExpiryPermanent
  • support for 14 new document types: South Australia DL, Bosnia and Herzegovina DL, Canada Ontario ID, Costa Rica DL, Denmark DL, Estonia DL, Finland DL, Kenya ID, Lithuania DL, Malaysia MyPR, Malta DL, Mexico Consular ID, Nigeria Voter ID, Philippines Professional ID
  • improved support for: USA Hawaii DL, Colombia DL, Costa Rica ID, France ID, India ID, Kazakhstan ID, Kuwait Resident ID, Israel DL, Kuwait DL, Thailand ID

Minor API changes:

• CameraPermissionManager constructor accepts object of type CameraPermissionManager.ResourceIds as a second parameter which can be used to customise "ask permission" layout - for previously used layout, use default implementation com.microblink.hardware.camera.CameraPermissionManagerResources
• RecognizerRunnerFragment extends androidx.fragment.app.Fragment, instead of deprecated android.app.Fragment
• All provided scan activities extend AppCompatActivity

Bug fixes:

• We fixed crash when using Direct API on high resolution com.microblink.image.Image from HighResImageWrapper

v5.2.0

Improvements:

• overall size impact on application reduced for almost 30% when BlinkID SDK v5.2 is used, relative to size impact of the previous v5.1
• enabled setting MrzFilter on MrtdCombinedRecognizer:
  • determines whether document should be processed or it is filtered out, based on its MRZ (Machine Readable Zone)
  • this feature is also available for MrtdRecognizer
• added Canada Alberta DL support for BlinkIdRecognizer and BlinkIdCombinedRecognizer
• enabled scanning back sides of 6 documents with BlinkIdCombinedRecognizer:
  • Czechia ID
  • Egypt ID
  • Germany ID
  • Italy ID
  • Pakistan Consular ID
  • Pakistan ID
• added property localizedName to BlinkIdRecognizer.Result and BlinkIdCombinedRecognizer.Result (CCC to Chinese alphabet conversion for Hong Kong ID)
• enabled digital signing of BlinkIdCombinedRecognizer.Result
• improved camera performance on some Samsung devices

Minor API changes:

• MrzFilter now accepts MrzResult for filtering, previously filtering has been performed based on the given MrtdRecognizer result.
• RecognizerRunner.getSingletonInstance() does not throw FeatureNotSupportedException anymore

Bug fixes:

• BlinkIdCombinedRecognizer - fixed issue when the front side of a document was returned as a back side

v5.1.0

New features:

• added 38 new documents for BlinkIdRecognizer and BlinkIdCombinedRecognizer: Algeria ID, Argentina DL, Australia Victoria DL, Australia Queensland DL, Australia Western Australia DL, Belgium Resident ID, Canada British Columbia DL, Canada Ontario DL, Canada Quebec DL, Cyprus ID, Czechia DL, Czechia ID, Egypt ID, Greece DL, India ID, India Pan Card, Israel DL, Malaysia MyKid, Malaysia MyTentera, Maldives ID, Morocco ID, Nigeria DL, Paraguay ID, Portugal DL, Puerto Rico DL, Qatar DL, Russia DL, Singapore Fin Card, Singapore Resident ID, Slovakia DL, Slovenia DL, South Africa DL, South Africa ID, Thailand ID, Tunisia ID, UAE DL, Uganda ID and Vietnam ID.
  Details on each new document and the complete list of the supported documents is here.

Improvements:

• overall size impact on application reduced for almost 50% when BlinkID SDK v5.1 is used, relative to size impact of the previous v5.0
• added new fields in MrzResult:
  • sanitizedDocumentCode
  • sanitizedDocumentNumber
• improved BlinkIdRecognizer and BlinkIdCombinedRecognizer:
  • introduced blur filter that discards blurred frames and prevents reading data from them. This option is enabled by default, it can be disabled by using BlinkIdRecognizer.setAllowBlurFilter(false) and BlinkIdCombinedRecognizer.setAllowBlurFilter(false)

v5.0.1

New features:

• new options in BlinkIdUISettings, DocumentUISettings, DocumentVerificationUISettings and BlinkIdOverlaySettings:
  • option to disable displaying of "Document Not Supported" dialog when BlinkIdRecognizer or BlinkIdCombinedRecognizer is used in combination with other recognizers - use method setShowNotSupportedDialog
  • option to configure back side scanning timeout - use setBackSideScanningTimeoutMs
• it is possible to set theme that will be used by activity launched from the UISettings - use UISettings.setActivityTheme

Minor API changes:

• all scan activity classes are final now

Bug fixes:

• fixed problems with aspect ratio of camera preview on Huawei Mate 10

v5.0.0

BlinkID v5 Release Announcement

We are very proud to announce BlinkID v5, the latest upgrade of our most popular product. BlinkID v5 is our first product powered entirely by machine learning.

Highlights in the BlinkID v5 Release

BlinkID v5 introduces improvements in the speed and accuracy of scanning and data extraction, and you will find:

• Best-in-class card detection.
• Automatic classification of different document types (no need to preselect the country or document type).
• Innovative and seamless UX with real-time instructions for the users.
• Data matching – we match the expiry date, DOB, date of issue, and document number captured from the front side with the data from the barcode or MRZ on the back.

Besides the new features listed above, we have worked on the improved performance of several other document components:

• Scanning of all documents with MRZ (IDs, passports, travel visas), or PDF417 barcodes.
• Scanning and data extraction of the front side of US driver’s licenses and IDs (horizontal).
• Capturing cropped face image supported even on vertical documents, passports and travel visas.
• Capturing document image.

Integration improvements

One of the main benefits that BlinkID v5 will bring is scalability and faster support for new document types.

• The integration of the mobile SDK will be significantly easier and faster.
• Mobile SDK build size will be much smaller.

How to get started and plan your upgrade?

BlinkID v5 mobile SDK release is currently available for native platforms.

• It’s advisable to get familiar with the range of supported document types. We will keep adding support for new documents and regularly update the list on Github.
• If currently supported document types are not yet supported in BlinkID v5 please follow future releases.
• To upgrade to BlinkID v5, you will need to obtain a new license key specifically for the document types that you require.
• Already licensed production keys will continue to work as usual, until you decide to upgrade.
• What if you require document types supported in the previous version (and not yet added in BlinkID v5) and another document type supported in BlinkID v5? That’s manageable, and in that case, we will create a custom build for you.

We strongly recommend checking the list of supported document types regularly. Please star and watch this repository, and take the time to test BlinkID v5 as much as possible.

Your opinion, especially on the performance and redesigned UX is very important for future developments. We would appreciate your feedback at blinkid@microblink.com.

Major API changes:

• removed all country specific recognizers - use BlinkIdRecognizer and BlinkIdCombinedRecognizer which classify and extract data from all countries that have been supported by country specific recognizers available in 4.x.x versions of the SDK
• available recognizers are:
  • BlinkIdRecognizer and BlinkIdCombinedRecognizer
  • MrtdRecognizer and MrtdCombinedRecognizer
  • UsdlRecognizer and UsdlCombinedRecognizer
  • DocumentFaceRecognizer
  • PassportRecognizer
  • VisaRecognizer
• detectors, parsers and barcode recognizers are removed from this version onward
• Templating API is no longer supported
• field by field scanning feature is no longer supported
• SDK has been migrated to AndroidX dependencies - previous SDK dependency com.android.support:appcompat-v7 has been replaced with androidx.appcompat:appcompat

New features:

• BlinkIdRecognizer and BlinkIdCombinedRecognizer now support new document types from different countries, all supported document types are listed here

Minor API changes:

• in combined recognizers results, documentDataMatch value is now returned as DataMatchResult enum with three possible values: NotPerformed, Failed and Success
• new API for configuring camera options on UISettings - use UISettings.setCameraSettings, which accepts object of CameraSettings type

v4.11.1

Bug fixes:

• fixed crash on some devices that use armeabi-v7a ABI - SDK was unable to reserve address space due to memory fragmentation
• fixed camera busy error in camera management that was happening during the quick closing and opening of the camera
• fixed rare crash on Samsung J5 Prime which has been caused by race condition during the initialization of native camera frame

v4.11.0

New features:

• added support for reading front and back side of Belgium ID - use BelgiumIdFrontRecognizer, BelgiumIdBackRecognizer and BelgiumCombinedRecognizer
• added support for reading all visa documents containing Machine Readable Zone - use VisaRecognizer

Improvements for existing features:

• improved MrtdRecognizer:
  • added support for documents with non-binary gender specification (symbol X)
• improved DocumentFaceRecognizer:
  • improved scanning time (faster scan)
  • added support for vertical IDs
  • removed the tryBothOrientations option (improved scan in all directions is enabled by default)
• improved scanning time (faster scan) for PassportRecognizer

Minor API changes:

• FieldByFieldOverlay is now configured by using FieldByFieldOverlaySettings instead of FieldByFieldUISettings
• DocumentVerificationUISettings and DocumentUISettings now support BlinkID recognizer
• BlinkIdUISettings now allow customisation of strings, colors and icons
• moved some classes to new packages

Bug fixes:

• fix for document not supported never reported if using BlinkIdRecognizer wrapped in SuccessFrameGrabberRecognizer

v4.10.0

Major improvements for US documents

As announced on several occasions this year, we are very proud to present new features for scanning of the US identity cards and driver’s licenses.

• Data extraction from the front side of the US identity documents.
• Best-in-class card detection.
• Scanning and data extraction data from the barcode on the back side.
• Data matching – we match the extracted information captured from the front side with the information from the barcode on the back.
• Redesigned UX to make the process more intuitive for end users.

On top of the above-mentioned new features, existing ones, such as face image and document image extraction, are still available.

Important notes on the upcoming release:

• Existing features that you have already purchased can be used along with the new features.
• Existing license keys that cover US documents will work as usual, until you decide to update to the new features.
• In order to use the new features in your app, you need to obtain a new license key specifically for the document types that you require.

We invite you to follow the release and the documentation on Github and to try new features through our Developer Dashboard. Your opinion on this release, and especially on the redesigned UX is highly valuable to us. Please leave us feedback at support@microblink.com.

Release notes

New features:

• added BlinkIdRecognizer for scanning front side of ID cards and BlinkIdCombinedRecognizer for combined scanning of front and back side of ID cards
  • for now, these recognizers classify and extract data from 87 different classes of United States driver's licenses and IDs (front and back side)
  • list of all supported document types can be found here
  • in the upcoming releases, we are planning to add support for more document types from different countries
• completely new UX for scanning ID cards with new scan activity and overlay: BlinkIdActivity and BlinkIdOverlayController:
  • best suited for scanning with BlinkIdRecognizer and BlinkIdCombinedRecognizer
  • other single side and combined document recognizers are also supported
• added support for reading back side of Nigerian Voter ID card - use NigeriaVoterIdBackRecognizer

Improvements for existing features:

• improved RomaniaIdFrontRecognizer
  • now extracts CNP number
• improved SloveniaIdFrontRecognizer and SloveniaCombinedRecognizer:
  • return boolean flag which indicates whether date of expiry is permanent - use SloveniaIdFrontRecognizer.Result.isDateOfExpiryPermanent() and SloveniaCombinedRecognizer.Result.isDateOfExpiryPermanent()
• improved GermanyPassportRecognizer:
  • better passport classification
• improved ColombiaIdFrontRecognizer:
  • support for document number in format 1-3-3
• improved SlovakiaIdFrontRecognizer:
  • support for German letters
• Malaysia:
  • MalaysiaMyTenteraFrontRecognizer supports 6-digit army number
  • MalaysiaIkadFrontRecognizer - better extraction of the following fields (DeepOCR support): date of birth, sector, employer, address and date of expiry
• United Arab Emirates:
  • glare detection is disabled by default for UnitedArabEmiratesIdFrontRecognizer and UnitedArabEmiratesIdBackRecognizer
  • UnitedArabEmiratesIdBackRecognizer - optimized detection for black backgrounds

Minor API changes:

• overlay controllers are no longer using UI settings, they're now using Overlay settings, you can convert UI settings to Overlay settings like this: uiSettings.toOverlaySettings()
• Recognizer now only has one type parameter
• Recognizer.Result no longer has any type parameters
• DocumentOverlayController and BarcodeOverlayController are replaced with single overlay controller - BasicOverlayController

Removed features:

• BarcodeScanActivity no longer supports results dialog
• verification activities no longer support action bar built in obsolete activity themes

Bug fixes:

• all default scan activities correctly set volume to media instead of ring
• all default scan activities now apply secure flag if enabled in ui settings
• fixed scanning bug for devices with problematic camera resolution, which caused that SDK was unable to scan data, known affected devices were: OnePlus 6T, OnePlus 7 Pro and Vivo V15

v4.9.1

Bug fixes:

• fixed bug in DocumentFaceRecognizer which caused that DPI settings has not been applied to dewarped images
• fixed bug in DocumentVerificationOverlayController/DocumentVerificationActivity - alert dialog has not been shown in cases when front and back side of the scanned document don't match
• ColombiaIdBackRecognizer - fixed result strings encoding problem