September 9, 2014

Application to Participate in the Proprietary Fingerprint Template Evaluation II

(PFT II) 

1. Who May Participate 

1.1 Developers of fingerprint matcher software system who have not participate in the NIST 

Fingerprint PFT II evaluation in the last 90 days (from the completion date of last sdk 

evaluated). 

1.2 The fingerprint matching software need not be “operational,” nor a production system, nor 

commercially available. However, the software must, at a minimum, be a stable 

implementation capable of being “wrapped” (formatted) in the API specification that 

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has published1 for this evaluation. 

1.3 Anonymous participation will not be permitted. This means that signatories to this 

Agreement acknowledge that they understand that the results (see Section 6) of the 

evaluation of the software will be published with attribution to their organization.

2. How to Participate 

2.1 In order to request participation in PFT II, potential participants must fill out this 

agreement, Application to Participate in PFT II Evaluation, identifying the Responsible Party 

and the Point of Contact, print and sign the form, and send to the location designated 

below. 

2.1.0 The Responsible Party is an individual with the authority to commit the 

organization to the terms in this document. 

2.1.1 The Point of Contact is an individual with detailed knowledge of the system 

applying for participation.

2.2 Upon receipt of the signed form by NIST, the organization will be classified as a 

“Participant” for PFT II. Registered Participants can download the small Validation Dataset 

available on the website2. 

Prior to submission of their Software Development Kit (SDK) the Participant needs to verify 

that

 a) their software executes on the validation data, and 

b) produces results in the desired format. 

The output of the validation data must be submitted to NIST along with the SDK. (NIST 

will supply the correct match to each search in the Validation Data. 

2.3 After the Participant has executed his software on the Validation Data, the Participants

should send the software (SDK with encryption as instructed in 2.5) to NIST. Non 

encrypted software will not be accepted. Software can be sent by email to pft@nist.gov, or 

on CD to 

 Proprietary Fingerprint Template Evaluation Liaison 

National Institute of Standards and Technology 

Information Access Division (894) 

100 Bureau Drive, Stop 8940 

Gaithersburg, MD 20899-8940

1 The PFT II Evaluation Plan, API are available at http://www.nist.gov/itl/iad/ig/pfii_evaluatin_plan.pdf 2 The PFTII validation website is at www.nist.gov/itl/iad/ig/pftii_validation.cfm 

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APPLICATION TO PARTICIPATE IN PFT II

2.4 Participants shall submit one SDK only, as specified in the of evaluation plan. 

2.5 The submitted SDK must be encrypted before sending to NIST. Detail instructions of how 

to generate keys and to encrypt with the NIST PFT public key are on the “Encrypting 

software for Transmission to NIST” website3. 

2.6 Software submitted must be compliant with the API specified by section 5 of 

http://www.nist.gov/itl/iad/ig/pftii_evaluation_plan.pdf. A box for the participant’s 

public key fingerprint is included on the “Request to Participate” form at the end of this 

document.

2.7 In the event software is found to be non-functional or non-compliant with the API, 

Participants will be notified with a detailed description of the problem(s) and given an 

opportunity to resubmit.

3. Points of Contact

3.1 The PFT II Evaluation Liaison is the government point of contact for PFT II. 

3.2 All correspondence should be directed to pft@nist.gov, which will be received by the PFT 

Evaluation Liaison and other PFT personnel. 

3.3 These correspondences may be posted to the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) document4

available on the PFT website at the discretion of the PFT Evaluation Liaison. The identity 

of those persons or organizations whose correspondences lead to FAQ postings will not be 

made public in the FAQ.

4 Access to Validation Data 

4.1 Validation Data can be downloaded from PFT website to Participants to assist in preparing 

for PFT II. 

4.2 The fingerprints in the Validation Data are representative of the PFT II Evaluation Data 

only in format. Image quality, collection device and other characteristics will vary between 

the Validation and Evaluation Datasets. 

5 Access to Evaluation Data 

5.1 The PFT II Evaluation Datasets are protected under the Privacy Act (5 U.S.C. 552a), and 

will be treated as Controlled Unclassified Information/Sensitive but Unclassified

and/or Law Enforcement Sensitive. 

5.2 PFT II Participants will have no access to Evaluation Data, either before, during or after the 

evaluation.

6 Reporting of PFT Results

6.1 After the completion of the PFT II evaluation, the government will publish all results 

obtained along with the organization’s name on the PFT website. The PFT website will 

contain, at a minimum, descriptive information concerning PFT, descriptions of each 

experiment, and aggregate evaluation results. NIST will use DET performance metrics as 

the primary indicators of one-to-one identification search accuracy. NIST will also report 

enrollment and matching timing information and average template sizes. NIST may 

compute and report other additional statistics.

6.2 Participants will be notified of their results. 

3 http://www.nist.gov/itl/iad/ig/encrypt.cfm 

4The PFTII FAQ is available at http://www.nist.gov/itl/iad/ig/pftii_faq.cfm

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APPLICATION TO PARTICIPATE IN PFT II

6.3 After the release of the PFT II results, Participants may decide to use the results for their 

own purposes. Such results shall be accompanied by the following phrase: “Results shown 

from the Proprietary Fingerprint Template Evaluation II (PFT II) do not constitute 

endorsement of any particular system by the U. S. Government.” Such results shall 

also be accompanied by the Internet address (URL) of the PFT website. 

6.4 Any data obtained during PFT II (except the SDK itself), as well as any documentation 

required by the Government from the participants, becomes the property of the 

Government. Participants will not possess a proprietary interest in the data and/or 

submitted documentation. The data and documentation will be treated as sensitive 

information and only be used for the purposes of this evaluation.

6.5 With the signing of this form, Participants attest that they will not file any PFT II-related 

claim against PFT II sponsors, supporters, staff, contractors, or agency of the U.S. 

Government, or otherwise seek compensation for any equipment, materials, supplies, 

information, travel, labor and/or other participant provided services. 

6.6 The U.S. Government is not bound or obligated to follow any recommendations that may 

be submitted by the Participant. The U.S. Government, or any individual agency, is not 

bound, nor is it obligated, in any way to give any special consideration to PFT II 

Participants on future contracts. 

6.7 With the signing of this form, Participants realize that any evaluation details and/or 

modifications that are provided in the PFT website supersede the information on this form. 

6.8 With the signing of this form, Participants realize that they can withdraw from the PFT II at 

any time before their software is received by NIST, without their participation and 

withdrawal being documented in the PFT website. 

6.9 NIST will use the Participants SDK software only for the agreed-upon PFT II evaluation, 

and in the event errors are subsequently found, to rerun prior tests and resolve those errors. 

6.10 NIST agrees not to use the Participants software for purposes other than indicated above, 

without express permission by the Participant. 

6.11 Please mail the completed and signed form to: 

Via Mail: 

Proprietary Fingerprint Template Evaluation (PFT II) Liaison 

National Institute of Standards and Technology 

Information Access Division (894) 

100 Bureau Drive, Stop 8940 

Gaithersburg, MD 20899-8940 

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APPLICATION TO PARTICIPATE IN PFT II

Request to Participate 

Company / Organization Name 

Responsible Party 

Title First Name MI Last Name Suffix 

Street/Mailing Address 

City State Zip Code 

Phone Number Fax Number Email Address 

Point of Contact: Check if same as Responsible Party above

Title First Name MI Last Name Suffix 

Street/Mailing Address 

City State Zip Code 

Phone Number Fax Number Email Address 

With my signature, I hereby request consideration as a Participant in the Proprietary Fingerprint 

Template Evaluation II (PFT II), and I am authorizing my company or organization to participate in PFT 

II Evaluation according to the rules and limitations listed in this document. 

With my signature, I also state that I have the authority to accept the terms stated in this document

SIGNATURE OF RESPONSIBLE PARTY DATE 

Participants should complete the box below per the instructions for transmission of encrypted content 

to NIST as defined in PFTII website and available at http://www.nist.gov/itl/iad/ig/encrypt.cfm. If 

preferred, participants can fax their public key to PFTII Liaison at 301-975-5287.

Participant's public-key 

fingerprint (enter here)

NIST's public-key fingerprint E229 C361 DDAA 740E A806 F157 D4F4 5808 2A7C B037

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