Latest NIST age estimation test shows gains by Cognitec, Idemia, Innovatrics, Yoti

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has posted fresh test results on its benchmark for facial age estimation technologies. Added in the new report are algorithms from Cognitec, Idemia, Innovatrics and Yoti. 

Other biometrics providers submitting new algorithms to the NIST Face Analysis Technology Evaluation (FATE): Age Estimation and Verification this year include Dermalog and Daon.

Yoti scored the lowest Mean Absolute Error (MAE) for ages 13 to 16, while Idemia’s algorithm had the lowest False Positive Rate (FPR) in the Challenge 25 task’s “application” and “border” categories. Cognitec landed in the top 5 in the Challenge 25 “application,” Age 13-16 MAE and Ages 8-12 FPR categories. Innovatrics sits 6th and 4th in the two Challenge 25 categories, and 7th in FPR for Ages 17-22.

An announcement from Dresden, Germany-based Cognitec says that in the latest evaluation, “averaging the rankings across two genders and all six regions, Cognitec achieves the best rank overall.”

“Ordering the algorithms by the average of the Mean Absolute Error (MAE) rates over all genders and regions also puts Cognitec’s algorithm in the top position.”

Yoti, meanwhile, claims success in the Child Online Safety rankings, where its algorithm occupies the top spot for MAE at 2.0182. Writing on LinkedIn, Yoti CEO Robin Tombs notes the significance of their score for 13-16 years olds: “NIST publish our 13-16 MAE as 2.06 years, significantly ahead of most other vendors. The 10th best vendor has an MAE of 3.86 years.”

In a comment quoting Tombs’ post, the Age Verification Providers Association (AVPA) acknowledges the value of the NIST rankings, but also their limits. “Given the test data is not the same quality as is used in real-world implementations, as Robin Tombs points out below, the absolute values for margins of error are somewhat misleading. Typically, in practice results are even more accurate.” 

“This is further evidence that estimation has a role to play alongside verification.”

Other familiar names hovering near the top of the NIST charts, which were last updated in February 2025, include Ondato, Incode, Nominder and ROC. 

Article Topics

age verification  |  biometric age estimation  |  Cognitec  |  Face Analysis Technology Evaluation (FATE)  |  face biometrics  |  facial age estimation (FAE)  |  IDEMIA  |  Innovatrics  |  NIST  |  Yoti