Soon Your Heartbeat Will Act As Your Password With The Nymi Bracelet
“Vascular Identification Complete” flashed the screen of Agent Ethan Hunt when he set out to rescue his fellow agent Lindsay Farris from an enemy stronghold in Mission: Impossible III. Essentially, the technology managed to record the ill-fated female agent’s heartbeat and confirm it was indeed her. A company has not only developed such a technology for everyday use, but managed to shrink the entire thing into a sleek bracelet.
Passwords have always been a rather crude and cumbersome solution for online security. Not only are they difficult to remember — especially now that it’s recommended that you have a different, extremely complex one for every website you log into — they are routinely hacked. Bigwigs like Facebook, Google, and others have reported their repositories compromised.
A U.S.-based design company called Bionym partnered with identification technology experts Brivo Labs to create a bracelet that uses your unique cardiac rhythm to verify your identity. Christened Nymi, the bracelet looks for the person’s unique “heartwave pattern,” which acts like a form of identification so only you can unlock your online accounts.
The bracelet has been primarily designed to work with computers for accessing mail accounts, shopping online, and other internet-based activities, but the possibilities are endless. The design and development team says it also working on getting it to interact with physical doors in an effort to do away with keys and swipe cards forever, reported Fast Company.
The device works by emitting a Bluetooth signal to identify the wearer based on their heartwave patterns. Computers, doors, and gates fitted with matching Brivo Labs software will be activated. The team is also looking at integrating the device into other aspects of our everyday lives, such as turning on lights and activating our cars.
The technology is pretty hack-proof since a stolen or lost bracelet won’t work in the hands of a hacker, as it will look for the heartbeat of the authenticated user. If the heartwave doesn’t match up, it will shut down the system.
Speaking about the technology behind the endeavor, Lee Odess, general manager at Brivo Labs said, “Your heartbeat is consistent, which makes it different from an iris or fingerprint which needs to be scanned. This makes it a frictionless form of identification, since you don’t need to stop to be verified. It’s not just about a signing in. It’s about bringing attributes about yourself so that you can have a curated experience.”
Wearable technology has been making our lives a little easier. But with biometric authentication, a new era of simplified protection is about to begin.
[Image Credit | Bionym]
