The Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) Hostage Rescue Team (HRT) and other Department of Defense operations require mobile biometric collection (Mobile ID) devices. These devices are used worldwide, often in hostile environments to identify terrorists and other potential threats to our national security. The HRT members often operate under very dangerous circumstances, any time day or night, and under any weather conditions. These operational settings require a device that is easy to transport and is usable (effective and efficient) under a wide range of conditions. Today's solutions are non-optimal. They have been retrofitted from existing COTS products, resulting in equipment that is very heavy and unwieldy to be carried in and out of operations in a backpack. In addition, there is no standardization to the user interface. Thus in a high stress and time critical operation, the user of the device cannot depend on consistency or ease of use of the user interface. Not only is the device physically heavy and unwieldy but this lack of standardization and consistency demands a high cognitive load when using the device which can compromise the user's safety.