diff --git a/interfaces/Fingerprintd-Engine.cppm b/interfaces/Fingerprintd-Engine.cppm
index f97d65e..46e3870 100644
--- a/interfaces/Fingerprintd-Engine.cppm
+++ b/interfaces/Fingerprintd-Engine.cppm
@@ -109,7 +109,16 @@ export namespace fingerprintd::engine {
             bool falling = !finger && prev_;
             if (rising)
                 out.push_back(Event::FingerTouched);
-            if (finger && mode == Mode::Authenticate)
+            // CANDIDATE 1, under measurement: on the rising edge of an
+            // authentication, the touch event alone. It does run the matcher
+            // here (the rising frame answered `MATCH MATCH` / `rej rej` with
+            // both events -- two verdicts from one image), and every recorded
+            // match followed a touch event, so this keeps what is known to
+            // matter and drops ~300 ms of duplicate work on the frame that
+            // decides every quick tap. Held frames still send image-ready.
+            // Labelled baseline before this change: 2/10 quick taps matched,
+            // 0/5 wrong-finger taps. If the rate drops, this comes out.
+            if (finger && mode == Mode::Authenticate && !rising)
                 out.push_back(Event::ImageReady);
             if (falling)
                 out.push_back(Event::FingerReleased);
diff --git a/packaging/fptrial.sh b/packaging/fptrial.sh
index 81eb405..d11bc28 100644
--- a/packaging/fptrial.sh
+++ b/packaging/fptrial.sh
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@
 # is the latency a user feels. Unlabelled runs cannot be turned into a rate.
 C=${1:-10}; W=${2:-5}
 OUT=/tmp/fptrial-$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M%S).log
-now() { date +%s%N; }
+now() { awk '{gsub(/\./,""); print $1 "0000000"}' /proc/uptime; }
 run() {  # $1 = label
     printf '\n>>> %s -- press and LIFT (quick tap) ... ' "$1"
     t0=$(now)
diff --git a/tests/Engine/main.cpp b/tests/Engine/main.cpp
index 693407c..e56b2cc 100644
--- a/tests/Engine/main.cpp
+++ b/tests/Engine/main.cpp
@@ -121,8 +121,8 @@ int main() {
         // its press. Not to be removed without a measurement isolating it.
         TouchTracker a;
         auto a1 = a.Observe(true, Mode::Authenticate);
-        Check(a1.size() == 2 && a1[0] == Event::FingerTouched && a1[1] == Event::ImageReady,
-              "auth: rising edge reports touched then image-ready");
+        Check(a1.size() == 1 && a1[0] == Event::FingerTouched,
+              "auth: rising edge reports touched only (candidate 1: one matcher run)");
         auto a2 = a.Observe(true, Mode::Authenticate);
         Check(a2.size() == 1 && a2[0] == Event::ImageReady, "auth: a held frame still reports image-ready");
         auto a3 = a.Observe(false, Mode::Authenticate);