July 5, 2004

Fingerprint Systems Superior in ID Tests

The government agency assigned to evaluate the reliability of identification technologies that might be used on visas and passports has singled out fingerprint systems from NEC of Japan, Sagem of France and Cogent Systems as the top performers in their group.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology, assigned to the task by the Patriot Act, said that the fingerprint systems, tested late last year, performed better as a group than facial recognition systems it tested in 2002. It also said that the best commercial fingerprint systems outperformed a system the agency had used in previous reports to Congress about the reliability of the technology.

A new round of testing on facial recognition systems is being organized by the agency for later this year.

The institute tested 34 systems voluntarily provided by 18 companies. The results were posted Thursday at fpvte.nist.gov.

NEC's system led the rankings in most tests, according to the report. When four fingers of a test subject were used, NEC successfully picked the person out of databases 99.9 percent of the time. The rate of false matches was just 0.01 percent.