Even though we are reeling from having phones that no longer recognize us with our mask on, we’re big fans of biometrics. Can’t help it. It’s contactless. It’s cool. It’s already a $24B play. But it’s a moving target, let us explain.
A brief history. Remember when a fingerprint was all it took to unlock your iPhone 5 in 2013? It was magic. Touch ID was born and biometrics went mainstream. Back then, the world was at our fingertips. But was that magic? No.
It was the convergence of two technologies that collided at the right time:
1) The science behind the ‘scanning’ sensor improved to near perfect
2) The use of smartphones went through the roof
Finally, biometrics was no longer just a government tool, Apple made it accessible to anyone with an iPhone.
As biometrics evolved, facial recognition technology became the next evolution of mainstream biometrics with advanced sensors.
Today, we find ourselves in a biometric, post-pandemic predicament. Our phones no longer recognize us with our masks on. When we are masked, Face ID doesn't see the shape of our nose and mouth during its setup scan. It gets confused, gives up, and is rendered useless –and we fall back into the dark ages of passcodes and pins.
Shakespeare knew if you concealed your face, your identity could be hidden. That is why so many of his characters were often masked.
What’s to come.The global smartwatch market is projected to reach $96.31 billion by 2027. With that, we believe the convergence of two things is happening now which can unlock and enable a heart-centric biometric:
1)The science behind the ‘ECG’ sensor is improving to near perfect
2) The use of smartwatches with ECG sensors is rolling out from global tech giants like Apple, Google, and Amazon.
With the ECG app, Apple Watch Series 6 is already capable of generating an ECG similar to a single-lead electrocardiogram for wellness, so why not use it for biometric authentication where the very rhythm of your heart helps secure your always-on digital identity? We believe it’s as unique as a face or fingerprint --and far harder to hack.
In the history of the world, no two people with identical hearts have ever been found. Making everyone’s cardiac rhythm a unique and powerful biometric. This uniqueness arises from a range of human factors, including the heart shape, size, orientation, and position within the body itself.
Our hope. In our utopia, we believe the very feature that can detect instances of AFIB on your smartwatch –will also detect who you are, where you are, and unmask your digital identity from an advanced heart-centric biometric. Think of it like wearing your heart on your sleeve.
In Othello, Shakespeare introduced the idea that if you “wore your heart on your sleeve, you could potentially unmask yourself.” More than 400 years later, we think he was on to something big. Very big.
To learn more about something big happening here, browse our new website at: www.taliware.com/biombeat
