ROC Strengthens Position as Leading Age Estimation Provider in NIST's Child Online Safety Evaluation

ROC's algorithmic strength secures NIST's top ranking in age estimation accuracy; ranked #1 globally in Child Online Safety and Mugshot dataset, underscoring ROC's commitment to developing digital safety technology that sets the global standard for biometric precision 

DENVER, CO, March 03, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Rank One Computing Corporation d/b/a ROC, (NASDAQ:ROC) ("ROC" or the "Company"), a U.S. leader in multimodal Vision AI, building sovereign biometric, video analytics, and mission intelligence solutions into a unified platform, announces its position as the top-ranked U.S. provider in age estimation. According to the latest age estimation results from the NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) Face Analysis Technology Evaluation (FATE), ROC's algorithmic power demonstrated sharp accuracy, garnering a category-leading performance in two operationally important industry benchmarks. Specifically, the Company was named number one global provider in Mean Absolute Error (MAE) for both the Child Online Safety (Ages 13-16) dataset and for the Age Estimation in Mugshot dataset. These results underscore ROC's independently measured leadership in U.S. government NIST benchmarks, strengthening its position as the trusted Vision AI infrastructure in regulated and mission-critical environments where performance verification is mandatory.

"Age assurance is becoming foundational to digital trust, especially when it comes to protecting minors. These NIST FATE results validate ROC's focus on accuracy at the boundaries that matter, helping partners meet evolving youth protection requirements while minimizing friction for legitimate users. Our goal is simple: make age assurance more precise, and the digital world safer for young users," said B. Scott Swann, ROC CEO.

ROC's algorithmic intelligence prioritizes accuracy, consistency, and reliability across a wide range of identification benchmarks. Most notably, age estimation has become foundational to how digital systems manage access and risk. With the ongoing rollout of online youth protection laws, social media platforms are deploying age assurance controls while financial institutions strengthen identity verification at onboarding. This industry push for higher age assurance is foundational to ROC's Vision AI platform: estimate age precisely, across demographics, in real-world conditions. Within ROC's unified platform, age estimation operates alongside multimodal biometric identity verification and real-time video analytics, helping organizations to strengthen digital onboarding, continuous authentication, and fraud prevention across physical and digital environments.

Businesses are facing increased regulatory, policy, and risk implications to ensure online safety for children and need solutions that accurately distinguish between children aged 13, 16, and 18. As NIST's global leader with the lowest MAE error rate for Child Online Safety (Ages 13-16), ROC's algorithms deliver measurable accuracy and precision in consequential real-world scenarios.

Additionally, ROC delivered the lowest error rate on the NIST FATE Mugshot dataset, demonstrating the precision of its algorithms in controlled identity environments, where consistency and repeatability are critical.  

"The latest NIST FATE results reinforce what we strive for every day at ROC: setting the global standard for biometric precision. Achieving the lowest Mean Absolute Error in NIST's rigorous Child Online Safety evaluation is more than a technical milestone, it reflects our commitment to building technology that makes the digital world safer. We deliver industry-leading accuracy so our partners can lead with absolute trust," said Keyur Patel, Director of Machine Learning at ROC.

NIST FATE is a government-run benchmarking program for face analysis tasks beyond recognition. For age estimation, the FATE Age Estimation & Verification (AEV) track is an ongoing evaluation of software algorithms that inspect face photos and produce an age estimate. NIST publishes results on accuracy and computational efficiency, and notes that facial age verification has been mandated in legislation in a number of jurisdictions, typically to protect minors. The AEV track is open to a worldwide community of developers under a standardized submission process.

Read ROC's Blog Post and Full NIST Scores here.

About ROC

ROC is a leading U.S. developer and manufacturer of Vision AI, delivering sovereign biometrics, video analytics, and mission intelligence through a unified platform. This enables agency and integrator partners to unlock faster, more accurate, and cost-efficient capabilities. At its core, ROC transforms raw pixels into real-time operational awareness for defense, public safety, and digital commerce. The Company is headquartered in Denver, Colo., with additional hubs in Grand Rapids, Mich., and Morgantown, W.V. For more information, please visit the Company's website: www.roc.ai.

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