HASHTAG
#FASHTECH
Wearable Password
Nymi
Bionym Inc., a Toronto-based company founded in 2011, designed a bracelet to track the heartbeat of the user and uses it as a pin or a password to seamlessly and instantly unlock private information in all their devices.
The idea was derived from the rise of cybercrimes and the importance of online privacy. Rather than relying on old-fashioned passwords that are susceptible to being hacked, a heartbeat is unique to each individual like a fingerprint and retina, and is able to offer greater security.
The bracelet, Nymi, is activated when it is clasped around the user’s wrist. It registers the user’s electrocardiogram (ECG) when the user places his finger on the sensor at the top of the cuff and the ECG will be encoded into the bracelet. Thereafter, Nymi will sync with a registered smartphone application that will authenticate the user’s identity and the user can then wirelessly gain access to all his devices locked by the bluetooth-enabled bracelet. The heartbeat identification will be reset once the user removes Nymi from his wrist and it will not function until the bracelet senses another ECG reading of the same user. Therefore, the user has his own Nymi and it cannot be used by others even when the bracelet is lost or stolen.
Currently, this wearable authentication technology is still a prototype. However, with the bracelet’s proximity detection and authentication, it has the power to conveniently unlock devices such as computers, tablets, banking accounts, house or car doors and purchase products over the counter with a wave of the hand. It is also affordable in terms of providing a lifetime of security and privacy at the price of $99 for the prototype. Apart from simply unlocking devices, the co-founder of Bionym, Karl Martin, is exploring into expanding the usefulness of the wearable authentication technology, by allowing it to constantly broadcast the user’s identity to all the devices that surround him, thus offering a “persistent identity” and a personalized experience in the future.
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