US Intelligence Unveils Plan to Upgrade Biometric Fingerprint Data

The United States is seeking help from private cyber experts to develop an automated fingerprint collection system that does not require a human technician, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) announced in a press release.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — DNI is soliciting input from researchers in industry and academia with a contest named the "Nail to Nail Fingerprint Challenge" that offers a total prize of $325,000, the release explained on Thursday.

"With this challenge, IARPA [Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity] seeks to produce an automated N2N [nail-to-nail] capture technology that can eliminate the need for human operators while collecting data that performs as good as or better than the traditional rolled biometric gold standard for matching other live collection or forensic fingerprints," the release stated.

IARPA is the agency within DNI tasked with investing in high-risk research projects with high-payoff potential.

The administration of former President Barack Obama frequently used contests similar to the IARPA fingerprint challenge to seek cyber expertise outside of government without the need for expensive procurement contracts.