Periodic Reporting for period 1 - BiowatchID (A secure wearable for payments, ticketing, access control and ID management)
Período documentado: 2019-02-01 hasta 2019-05-31
BiowatchID is a smart band worn on the wrist, which is a secure vault that only the owner can use due to continuous biometric authentication. BiowatchID uses a secure patented wrist vein identification technology with demonstrated 99,999% reliability. It is a tamper-proof, military grade security device which supports multiple protocols & communication channels. Once BiowatchID is closed on the wrist, it scans & recognizes the unique vein pattern, and then continuously monitors the presence of the wrist. BiowatchID owner uses the companion app to setup the wearable & enrol his/her wrist vein pattern, to manage the data stored in the wearable, to download firmware updates & enable new services from 3rd parties. Once BiowatchID is set up & paired with 3rd party services, it works independently from the mobile phone, replacing payment cards, keys, PIN codes, passwords, etc.
BiowatchID is designed to replace ID cards & passports; credit cards, loyalty cards, mobility cards; car keys, passwords, access badges; (and in the long term) Touch ID, Face ID & other similar biometric authentication solutions.
In this Phase 1 project (2018-2019), we have carried out additional market validation of BiowatchID in B2B scenarios to support our proof-of-concepts & update our business plans, as well as identify additional partnerships for sales & distribution.
In 2019-2020 we will industrialize the technology, aiming to deliver the market ready product variants that can scale 10,000+ units for B2B sales.
In 2020 we will finalize the R&D on additional product variants & start addressing the market via a range identified partners, scaling up to 100,000-unit sales.
Novel optics: we have designed a novel optical system to meet our requirements on miniaturization & performance, to minimize the impact of skin reflection & achieve uniform illumination.
Novel biometric algorithm: we have reached an acceptable False Rejection Rate (<5%) when operating at a False Acceptance Rate = 0.001%, thus proving that the wrist vein pattern of an individual carries enough entropy to be discriminated amongst at least hundred thousand. These performances have been obtained by running a proprietary matching algorithm on millions of pairs of images from a pool of more than 10,000 images coming from more than 800 wrists. These images of wrist vein patterns are unique to Biowatch and constitute a significant advantage against competition. It directly results from an “at a distance” way of doing, a partnership with CSEM for early prototyping and a partnership with Idiap for excellence in data collection. We are now focusing our efforts to decrease the FRR to 1% via a better enrolment strategy. We believe a FRR <0,01% @ FAR=0,001% is achievable in a near future.
B2B market analysis: We have confirmed corporate access control as the 1st market segment to commercialize in. The advantages of this segment are: 1) immediate tangible value to the company, 2) hassle-free, scalable deployment, 3) immediate entry into the B2B2C segment through the acquired user base.
B2B2C market analysis: We have explored 4 vertical uses cases (banking, automotive, mobility and government).
Based on the feedback of the market, a product redesign is necessary: the product we are now considering and pitching to investors and customers/partners is a watch as it provides the most available volume for our technology while benefiting from a higher price tolerance from the market.
In addition to a miniaturised near-infrared camera for high-contrast image acquisition of the user’s vein pattern, BiowatchID contains an embedded controller that hosts our proprietary biometric algorithm for vein pattern recognition, a secure element for data encryption, NFC & BLE chips for communication to readers & other IoT devices, sensors for continuous authentication, an accelerometer for activity tracking, a vibrating element for notifications & 2 RGB LEDs for user interaction. The band is powered by a Li-Ion rechargeable battery (with at least 2 weeks autonomy) & is waterproof.
The added value (and the disruptive potential) of BiowatchID is in a simple, convenient, highly secure wrist-worn wearable solution that is ready for payments, ticketing, access control & ID management that allows continuous authentication of the user. BiowatchID ultimately becomes the only ID necessary, a one-stop-shop for all daily authentication needs to devices, premises & services. Importantly, BiowatchID is designed for user privacy from day one—all biometric data is stored in the wearable & not in the cloud.
BiowatchID provides a superior “always-on” solution to mobile phones & existing means of biometric authentication, such as fingerprints or iris scans. In terms of user experience, BiowatchID is far simpler to use than any existing biometrics.
European/global challenges, societal benefits
The key global challenge that we are addressing with BiowatchID is the increasing threat of identity theft. In the UK alone there were ~90,000 successful identity thefts in 6 months of 2017. Identity theft numbers in EU are reaching epidemic levels. BiowatchID is the secure way to make identity theft unlikely.