There’s a Wocket in My Pocket! may soon not just be a sentence from the mouths of children after reading the rhyming book by Dr. Seuss. There was plenty of made-up ridiculousness in the iconic book, such as a bofa on the sofa, but there is nothing fictitious about the Wocket, a next-generation payment and identity product that is being developed by Shelton, Connecticutt-
based NXT-ID, Inc. (OTCQB:NXTD).
NXT-ID was founded by former senior management at Technest Holidings and its subsidiary, Genex Technologies, industry-leading companies in the field of advanced imaging, including 3D and 360-degree technologies. NXT-ID has licensed these companies’ technologies, as well as technologies from 3D-imaging expert Geometrix. Utilizing these technologies with their own intellectual property, NXT-ID is launching MobileBio, a technology that secures consumers’ mobile platforms through authentication and encryption.
As the trend continues to move towards mobile transactions, there is a great need for advanced solutions to protect users’ and institutions’ information more effectively than the inherently insecure standards of payment today. MobileBio is the cornerstone of NXT-ID’s end-to-end solutions to bridge the gap.
The company has developed Biocloud, a cloud-based biometric identify authentication solution for consumer applications and corporate security. The company’s MobileBio Voicematch platform can be bootstrapped to several platforms, such as smartphones, tablets and
computers, to embed additional security via voice recognition biometrics to ensure the identity of a user before allowing access to countless applications. Voicematch is forecast to be available in the first quarter of 2014.
Along the same lines, MobileBio Facematch employs modular facial recognition to devices for superior authentication and encryption. Several configurations are possible, including hosting the technology on a device or remotely in the cloud by marrying
Facematch with Biocloud. According to NXT-ID, Facematch will soon be available in an app for iPhone and Android systems.
After Thursday’s closing bell, NXT-ID announced that it took the next step with its next-generation digital wallet, called the "Wocket." The Wocket is being designed to reduce the number of cards in a person’s wallet while supporting essentially every payment method used today at retailers, such as magnetic stripe, barcodes, etc. all from a secure digital vault. The company said that it has successfully ported its MobileBio voicematch algorithm to the Wocket, which brings the product one move closer to commercialization.
"We are pleased with the continued development of the Wocket™," says David Tunnell, CTO of NXT-ID. "Our approach eliminates the need for passwords by authenticating identity in a natural way for users. With Voicematch™, users can simply ask for a user-defined name of a card and the Wocket™ then automatically programs the NXTCard with the card of their choice."
A lot of noise has been made recently about improving security on devices of all types. Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) was even criticized for not including their thumbprint technology on the latest generation of iPhones 5C’s to prevent unauthorized use. While thumbprint technology is certainly a more advanced security feature and will be welcomed by the masses, what NXT-ID is taking things to the next level with voice and facial recognition. In short (and layman’s terms), this is some pretty cool stuff.
NXT-ID is an early-stage company that just went public in August via an S-1 registration, but interest seems to remain strong with shares climbing from initially around $1.50 to as high as $6.00 before pulling back to current levels around $3.50. As the products start rolling-out to the public, even more investors (and other companies) may start taking note of this upstart and the cutting-edge technology it possesses. Proper due diligence is, as always, encouraged.
