Are passwords soon to be passé?
People are currently planning civilian tourism to the moon, and yet we’re still relying on the same basic computer password strategies that we used in 1994. (We all know that you use your dog’s name and your birth year for every single online password, because that’s what everyone else does, too.)
Driven by a potent combination of laziness (I can’t possibly be bothered to remember which variation of my dog’s name and my birth year that I used on this particular site) and paranoia (if Target and Home Depot and everyone else can be hacked, might someone be able to guess my dog’s name and my birth year?), consumers have begun to demand a better solution.
Passwords have been the security barrier of choice since the computer’s debut. From marc falardeau.
Enter the Nymi bracelet. Yes, you read that correctly: The answer to all of our pleas may arrive in the form of jewelry.
The Nymi bracelet is the brainchild of a technology company called Bionym. The Nymi operates on a very basic — and yet sort of mindblowing — principle: It uses your heartbeat as a password.
We know, we know — this sounds like something out of a sci-fi novel. Stay with us. As humans, we all have distinctive cardiac rhythms. It’s sort of like a fingerprint. No two cardiac rhythms are identical. The Nymi can “sense” someone’s cardiac rhythm in order to identify that person. Thus, using the Nymi, you don’t need to enter a password — or even touch anything — in order to bypass a security block such as a computer log-in page. As if that’s not impressive enough, the Nymi takes into account your cardiac rhythm as well as your physical proximity. That’s a good thing, since you wouldn’t want it to unlock your computer from the other side of the office, else Lester the intern will log into your Facebook and leave an unfortunate status update.
The Nymi operates via Bluetooth technology, which has been around for a while. It was originally designed to replace computer passwords, but Bionym recognized the practically unlimited potential of the technology, and they’re already expanding into other arenas.
One exciting example: Bionym recently collaborated with a technology firm called Brivo Labs. Brivo Labs’ technology “authenticates users who need clearance to enter a given space, such as a hotel room, a government building, or even a coffee shop bathroom.” By embedding those entrances with Brivo Software and integrating that software with The Nymi, users wearing The Nymi can be wirelessly authenticated and the doors will open without anyone touching anything.
(Okay, now we want to stroll up to a security gate and have it open automatically. That sounds like James Bond-level stuff.)
Writing for Fast Company, Elizabeth Segren notes that security authentication is just the beginning of The Nymi’s potential capabilities. The concept of “wearable identification” might just be the wave of the future. “While opening doors and unlocking passwords are a starting point, the next step would be to offer the consumer personalized information, such as the specific seat they are assigned to at a baseball game or that a concession stand several feet away might trigger a peanut allergy.”
The possibilities are endless. And that makes our hearts beat just a bit faster.
