Hacker News Reader

Comment by mmaha | Hacker News Reader

Check out Nymi [https://www.nymi.com/], also in this space.

We are aware of Nymi, they have cited some of our ECG biometrics research papers, and we theirs. But Nymi makes the user constantly wear a band. As soon as you take off the band, their authentication stops working. Also, you have one more gadget to charge. In CardioID's case, the ECG sensors are embedded into everyday life objects, so the system is ready whenever the user wishes it. Beyond that, we also continuously track other heart parameters, like heart rate and cardiac arrhythmias.

But if you have several locations where you'd like to log in you require multiple of these devices, right?

With wrist band you could sell to something like FitBit or just add step-, distance-, calorie tracking, watch, silent alarms and call/sms notifications into the mix.

Yes, you're right. That's why we're primarily targeting a B2B market. Imagine that a gym has machines with our technology embedded. The gym's users would be able to seamlessly track their workout across different machines, just by using them as they normally would, no need for extra weight.

Note that, for continuous ECG monitoring, you need skin contact with 2 electrodes, from different limbs. That's why with Nymi, authentication is performed only once when the user puts it on, with one finger touching the visible electrode (the other electrode is on the underside of the band). In this case, there is no continuous verification of identity, or other parameters.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com