Bionym Nymi: heartbeat authentication on your wrist

Imagine never having to type in a password again on your phone or computer. Imagine all the machines at the gym know you and remembering your past workouts. Imagine walking up to your car, or hotel door and it unlocking for you.

Imagine the world around you adjusting to your presence because the world around you knows exactly who you are.

It sounds a little science-fictiony, but the people at Bionym think that their forthcoming device, the Bionym Nymi will usher in a new era of identity authentication.

It’s hard to believe that Bionym hadn’t even conceived of the Nymi until April of this year. In less than a year they went from conception to working prototype. And, they are confident that they will release the Nymi sometime in 2015.

So how does this thing even work?

The Bionym Nymi constantly monitors your heartbeat. Since we each have a unique cardiac rhythm, it’s like we each carry with us an internal password. The Nymi is constantly looking for your paired devices and letting them know you are there, and have a heartbeat.

Using a sensor on the top of the wrist band, you will set let your device authenticate your cardiac rhythm. From there, the world is yours to change, err I mean, authenticate.

Tired of entering that pin code to unlock your phone or tablet? Let Nymi do it for you.

Want your thermostat to adjust to a certain temperature when you are home? The Nymi will take care of that for you.

Hate taking your wallet out to pay for stuff? The Nymi can talk to the cash register and charge your card.

The potential for the device is pretty limitless. The more you think about how it could be use, then more ideas will come to mind.

No word on price yet, but I suspect it will be comparable to fitness bands and smartwatches. If they can come in around $199-$299, they could probably get people on board pretty quickly.

Check out the video below and imagine the possibilities.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUO7Qnmc8vE]