SOCOM Seeks Smartphone App for Fingerprint Data.

• Author: Lee, Connie

* TAMPA, Fla. -- Special Operations Command is developing an application that would allow warfighters to collect biometric information--such as fingerprints--with their smartphones, according to an official.

The application would have touchless fingerprint technology, said Glen Cullen, the command's program manager for sensitive site exploitation within the program executive office for special reconnaissance, surveillance and exploitation. This would reduce inconsistencies associated with traditional systems, which employ sensors that do not always capture the information on the first try.

"We want to turn it into an app on a phone so that you basically are taking a picture of the... person's fingerprints," he told National Defense at the Special Operations Forces Industry Conference in Tampa, Florida. "We feel we're leading the way with [touchless technology] because everything now that people are using [requires putting] your fingers in physical contact with some type of sensor."

Using the application is also expected to reduce costs and eliminate the need to carry larger tactical devices for gathering personally identifiable information for intelligence operations, he noted.

"That means that anybody who's got a cell...