Media Releases

Nymi by Bionym launches using your unique heartbeat to unlock your world

September 3, 2013

Biometric technology wristband reads heart rhythms to connect with devices for identity authentication

TORONTO, ON – The next gen­er­a­tion of bio­met­ric tech­nol­o­gy launch­es today with the Nymi, from  Bionym, a tech­nol­o­gy start-up found­ed by Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to engi­neer­ing grad­u­ates. The Nymi is the world’s first wear­able authen­ti­ca­tion device that uses your unique heart­beat to unlock your iden­ti­ty. The con­ve­nient and secure authen­ti­ca­tion is enabled through an embed­ded elec­tro­car­dio­gram (ECG) sen­sor. When the Nymi rec­og­nizes your per­son­al ECG, it will com­mu­ni­cate your iden­ti­ty to your devices. You remain authen­ti­cat­ed until the Nymi is removed. The acti­vat­ed Nymi can then be used to gain access to all reg­is­tered devices, com­plete­ly bypass­ing pass­words and PINs for seam­less and secure access. Pass­words, PINs and even keys and cards will become a thing of the past.

Not only is your ECG entire­ly unique, but the tech­nol­o­gy alone is also unlike any­thing cur­rent­ly on the mar­ket. The Nymi empow­ers users to bring their iden­ti­ty back to the dig­i­tal world, not as a num­ber, but as a per­son. Beyond direct access to your tech­nol­o­gy, the Nymi also allows users to take their iden­ti­ty to a com­plete­ly inter­ac­tive lev­el. Sim­ple, task-spe­cif­ic ges­ture com­mands allow for a dynam­ic inter­ac­tive expe­ri­ence between the user and the tech­nol­o­gy that sur­rounds their dai­ly life. Both motion sens­ing and prox­im­i­ty detec­tion work simul­ta­ne­ous­ly to enhance tech­no­log­i­cal expe­ri­ences. Some­thing as sim­ple as the twist of a wrist now has the capa­bil­i­ty to unlock a car or more.

While offer­ing con­ve­nience and ease of use, secu­ri­ty remains a top pri­or­i­ty. The Nymi func­tions as a three-fac­tor secu­ri­ty sys­tem. It requires your per­son­al­ized Nymi, your unique heart­beat, and a smart­phone or device that has been reg­is­tered to the app. This sys­tem, and the cut­ting edge bio­met­rics sup­port­ing it, allow for com­plete secu­ri­ty with­out com­pro­mis­ing con­ve­nience. By reg­is­ter­ing with the app, users have the abil­i­ty to cre­ate cus­tom noti­fi­ca­tions, allow­ing for seam­less con­nec­tion to emails, texts, social updates and more. The app will be avail­able on iOS, Android, Win­dows and Mac OSX.

“When it comes to iden­ti­ty, pri­va­cy is a chief con­cern,” said Karl Mar­tin, CEO of Bionym, “The Nymi has been built by the prin­ci­ples of Pri­va­cy by Design. This means that each user has com­plete con­trol over their data and iden­ti­ty. Trans­paren­cy is very impor­tant to Bionym’s cul­ture, and every user has a right to know where their data is going.”

Most impor­tant­ly, the Nymi is about the future. The unlocked poten­tial of this authen­ti­ca­tion-based tech­nol­o­gy is far reach­ing. The Nymi is look­ing to inter­act with devel­op­ers to cre­ate a com­mu­ni­ty that will explore the dig­i­tal and social oppor­tu­ni­ties that the Nymi unlocks.

The Nymi will be avail­able for pre-order as of Sep­tem­ber 3, 2013 for under $100, and will be deliv­ered in ear­ly 2014. To find out more about pric­ing, or to pre-order now please go to www.getnymi.com, or fol­low us on Twit­ter @Nymiband.

About Bionym

Bionym is a leader in cut­ting-edge bio­met­ric recog­ni­tion sys­tems. Bionym devel­ops inno­v­a­tive iden­ti­ty and con­ve­nience-based secu­ri­ty solu­tions for mod­ern prob­lems, using rev­o­lu­tion­ary tech­nolo­gies to pro­tect pri­va­cy and ensure data secu­ri­ty. Bionym was part of the inau­gur­al cohort of the Cre­ative Destruc­tion Lab at the Rot­man School of Man­age­ment at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to. In August 2013, Bionym closed $1.4M (CAD) in seed financ­ing, with the major­i­ty of the invest­ment via the Cre­ative Destruc­tion Lab “G7” mem­bers. Bionym was found­ed in 2011 and is locat­ed in down­town Toron­to, Cana­da.

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For more infor­ma­tion, con­tact:

Kurt Bartlett
Mar­ket­ing and Pub­lic Rela­tions
KBartlett@bionym.com
Tel: 647–637-3390