A new technology evaluation of fingerprint verification algorithms has been organized following the approach of the previous FVC2000 and FVC2002 evaluations, with the aim of tracking the quickly evolving state-ofthe-art of fingerprint recognition systems. Three sensors have been used for data collection, including a solid state sweeping sensor, and two optical sensors of different characteristics. The competition included a new category dedicated to “light” systems, characterized by limited computational and storage resources. This paper summarizes the main activities of the FVC2004 organization and provides a first overview of the evaluation. Results will be further elaborated and officially presented at the International Conference on Biometric Authentication (Hong Kong) on July 2004.