To the Beat of Your Own Heart – ECG and Your Identity

The following is a guest post from Bionym, a biometric recognition system company based in Toronto, Canada.

Did you know that your heartbeat defines you? Beyond all of the romantic and sentimental images that sentence conjures, the shape, size and position of your heart can produce a heart rhythm as unique as a fingerprint.

At Bionym, we’ve run with the idea and created a biometric authentication technology called the Nymi. This piece of wearable tech allows you to use your unique Electrocardiogram (ECG) to authenticate yourself. The Nymi has two sensing surfaces, one on the wrist and one on the top. When both of these are touched, your electrical current is completed, and voila, the Nymi now knows that you are you!

The Nymi will then communicate your identity to all of your devices using low Bluetooth Low Energy. That means no more prompts, passwords, PINs or keys. The Nymi has the potential to replace all forms of validation, allowing for seamless access to everything from your smartphone, to your front door. It’s just you and your Nymi from now on.

The digitization of our world has created a lot of friction points. Increasingly important information is available on our smartphones and computers, but a never-ending stream of prompts for passwords reduces both convenience and security. The main benefit of the Nymi’s wearable biometric technology is that once a user authenticates, the Nymi continues to authenticate until it is removed.

While biometrics is the heart of the Nymi (excuse the pun), it also has an integrated accelerometer and gyroscope, which allows for simple, task-specific gesture control. The motion sensing works in unison with proximity detection and biometric security to allow secure, remote interaction with various devices. Basically, something as simple as the turn of a wrist could unlock your car door.

Security

When you’re dealing with your identity, security is a top concern, as it should be.

In terms of security, the Nymi goes above and beyond the standard of consumer biometrics such as fingerprint scanning. The Nymi has a 3-Factor system ensures that you and only you have access to your Nymi, and control of your identity. To access the Nymi you must first have possession of the wristband. Second, you must possess your unique heart rhythm, and finally, you must have access to the secure application on a registered smartphone. All of that can be easily accomplished without compromising convenience.

The Potential

We’re most excited about the future. What will it look like? We are now looking to build a community of developers that are excited to do new, thrilling things with identity, motion and proximity detection. With a widespread, wearable authentication device like the Nymi, everything from gaming to banking to retail experience can be completely revolutionized.

We’re excited not only about our unique approach to biometrics, but also the potential for the future. Keep an eye out!

We’re pleased to announce that we are launching the Nymi September 3^rd!

Follow us on Twitter @NymiBand.