Key points
- DERMALOG said on November 4 that it completed NIST FastCAP qualification testing for contactless fingerprint capture.
- NIST lists 14 vendors that met the requirements in Special Publication 500-339.
- The program tests whether ten fingerprints can be captured quickly without touching a scanner.
- DERMALOG named no products and gave no performance figures in its release.
DERMALOG Identification Systems GmbH has qualified in a US government program for contactless fingerprint capture. The Hamburg-based company announced the result on November 4, 2026. It said it completed qualification testing in the Fast Capture (FastCAP) program run by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
NIST now lists DERMALOG among vendors whose contactless fingerprint systems meet the requirements of NIST Special Publication 500-339, the company said. DERMALOG’s chief executive, Günther Mull, called contactless capture a way to make biometric processes “more efficient and user-friendly.”
What the contactless fingerprint program tests
According to NIST, FastCAP covers contactless rapid tenprint identity capture. The aim is to collect ten fingerprints quickly and reliably without a touch-based scanner. NIST’s Fast Capture page says the Phase One research agreement with industry concluded in August 2026, and that qualification testing measured devices against the quality standards in SP 500-339.
The page lists 14 vendors that satisfied the tests, DERMALOG among them. NIST describes the process as qualification testing, not certification. It added that detailed summaries of the testing framework and aggregate findings are still being compiled.
Where DERMALOG expects to use it
DERMALOG said the technology targets mobile identity verification, remote enrollment and civil registration, especially in mobile and high-volume settings. The release did not name any products. It also gave no capture times, accuracy rates or customer deployments.
Contactless capture changes how fingerprints are collected, not how they are matched. For background on where fingerprints and faces each fit, see our guide to facial recognition vs fingerprint and our explainer on biometric authentication.
Open questions
NIST has not yet published the aggregate results, so it is unclear how the 14 vendors compare on speed and image quality. Readers may also ask how contactless capture will perform outside controlled test conditions, such as in remote enrollment on consumer phones. Will governments that run civil registration programs adopt the NIST list as a procurement reference?
Sources
- DERMALOG press release, November 4, 2026
- NIST Fast Capture (FastCAP) program page
- NIST Special Publication 500-339
