Apparatus for detecting biometric features

In known fingerprint capture devices, the problem of being able to collect required number of minutiae safe for reliable detection of a fingerprint. This is, inter alia, that the contrast of the receptacle in prior art arrangements is very low. The object of the invention is to improve the detection quality for contactless detection of the fingerprint. This is achieved by a direct frontal lighting, which is complemented by an additional side lighting. The frontal lighting is sufficient lighting, the edge lighting for shadows of the ridges that increase the contrast significantly and thus improve the recognition quality makes.