Today, there are commercially available, certified hardware peripheral devices (i.e., listed on Appendix F of the FBI Electronic Biometric Transmission Specification (EBTS)) that law enforcement personnel use for the purposes described that are highly accurate, meet current standards, and are interoperable with fingerprint databases. These devices tend to be portable and are mostly connected to smartphones, tablets, or laptops via cable or wireless communications to transfer files. The files may be stored, managed, or manipulated by a mobile application on a smartphone or tablet. However, these devices require agencies to purchase additional equipment and field officers to carry that equipment in addition to the large collection of equipment they already carry.

While these are technically mobile devices, the term “mobile device” for the purposes of this challenge and throughout these Official Rules means a smartphone or tablet from a major vendor that can run mobile applications and access the available device sensors to capture digital fingerprint images.