NIST picks 11 contactless fingerprint biometrics providers for certification testing NIST has completed the first phase of its vendor engagements under the Fast Capture (FastCap) program for evaluating contactless fingerprint technologies. Eleven biometrics providers have joined the program under a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) following successful qualification testing. The testing stage included cooperative evaluations of the vendor technologies’ biometric acquisition capabilities, refinement of performance metrics and prototype testing for contactless rapid tenprint scanners. The 11 vendors that satisfied the qualification test criteria are: U.S.-based AA Technology, Gambit ID, which has offices in Canada and the U.S., Idemia, Identy, IDloop, Mentalix, Sciometrics, Synolo, Thales, Tech5 and Veridium. The qualification holds up these biometrics developers as global leaders in contactless fingerprints. The qualification testing was carried out based on NIST Special Publication 500-339, “Specification for Certification Testing of Contactless Fingerprint Acquisition Devices, 1.0,” published in April, 2023. The specification emphasizes the “fundamental departure” that contactless fingerprint biometrics represent from legacy contact-based capture technologies. The steps, procedures and software for the tests, along with the properties to be measured, are defined in NIST SP 500-336. SP 500-336, “Specification for Interoperability Testing of Contactless Fingerprint Acquisition Devices, v1.0,” was published in 2022. The same NIST document explains the creation of standardized test fingers for use in comparing the 2D images created by contact-based fingerprint scanners and the 3D images captured by contactless biometric scans. Properties to be measured (measurands) include image entropy, signal to noise ratio, scale factor computations and NFIQ image quality assessment. The next step is for NIST to review the qualification testing outcomes. Phase Two of the FastCap initiative will involve more vendor engagement as well as government bodies to encourage the adoption of contactless biometrics. The qualification testing model will also be expanded into a framework for ongoing