A local company has developed a new type of wearable security that’s truly from the heart.

Nymi, a wristband being released this fall by Toronto-based Bionym, authenticates your identity using your cardiac rhythm.

“Your electrocardiogram (or ECG), which is normally used for health and medical purposes, is a unique biometric — like a fingerprint,” said Karl Martin, Bionym’s CEO.

Martin’s goal? Helping you ditch all the passwords, PINs and keys you use every day.

It’s a clever idea that’s gaining traction with both consumers and international media. So far, there have been around 10,000 preorders from around the world — and the company has been covered in outlets ranging from the website TechCrunch to the New York Times.

Nymi works by picking up the electrical signal generated by your heart. When you put the wristband on, there’s an electrode under the device, touching your wrist, and another one on top of the device.

You have to touch the top sensor with your opposite hand for a few seconds to “complete the circuit” so the device can determine your ECG and lock it in. (It’s not always tracking your ECG — just when you first put it on.)

Think of it this way: Your heart is basically a big battery. To pick up its electrical signal, you have to “close the loop” for a moment.

“Every time the heart beats, there are all these electrical signals that fire off to make the muscle move in a co-ordinated way,” Bionym explained. “That sort of succession of signals looks different for different people.”

The device’s first model will be able to control access to the user’s personal computer, tablet or Android phone via free applications, available when you purchase the $79 wristband. (The wristband’s price will be going up after preorders end, Martin noted.)

Martin hinted that there are big things brewing for the 35-person company, like major partnerships in the payment and hospitality industries — and a “very significant amount of funding” being announced in the weeks ahead.

Nymi is just one example of biometric security — authentication technology that’s based on things like fingerprints, iris patterns, and even the geometry of your ear. The fingerprint sensor on iPhones, for instance, is a form of biometric security; so is the iris scan used for NEXUS border crossings between Canada and the United States.

Organizations are starting to use biometrics more often because they can store far more information about a person, said Svetlana Yanushkevich, director of the Biometric Technologies Laboratory at the University of Calgary’s Schulich School of Engineering.

“We want to verify people by something that they have, not that they remember — so instead of using passwords, tokens or cards, we’re using what people possess intrinsically,” she explained.

But no security technology is foolproof, said Mahesh Tripunitara, associate professor in the University of Waterloo’s electrical and computer engineering department.

“As a techie, I’m very skeptical about these devices that provide you everything in one box,” he said.

Martin said the Nymi authentication is twofold — the biometric aspect, along with a unique serial number on each device.

“It then communicates to other devices using Bluetooth to bypass passwords and pins, unlock physical spaces, but also to provide a personalized experience,” Martin said.

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No biometric system can be 100 per cent perfect in its implementation, he added.

The idea for the wristband was developed in 2013, but the company itself was first launched in 2011, shortly after Martin graduated from the University of Toronto with a Ph.D in electrical and computer engineering.

Bionym was part of the inaugural cohort of U of T’s incubator, the Creative Destruction Lab. Along with a co-founder who has since left the company, Martin said they toyed with various biometric-related ideas before Nymi — but this is the one that stuck.