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MVINE wins funding for Covid-19 anti-body test prototype
Published: 11 June 2020
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Mvine to improve public health and citizen privacy with digital technology New innovation for antibody test results to deliver prototype by 31 July 2020.

Innovation Martlesham company Mvine Limited has recently announced that it has commenced development of its ‘Covid-19 test status digital passport, with privacy protection for adults and children’ project which in two months will deliver a fully working demonstrator featuring highly innovative technologies being put to use in an entirely new way.

The company, a British tech firm, won £49,000 public funding from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) in the competition ‘Business-led innovation in response to global disruption (de minimis)’ which was publicised by Innovation Martlesham to all its members and which eventually attracted over 8,500 applications nationally.

Mvine’s main areas of focus will be on developing a solution to enable the recognition of individuals with positive anti-body tests for Covid-19 but which does not require extensive new infrastructure and which allows for widespread acceptance and access to the result of the test. At the point of testing, tokenised individual test result is bound to an individual’s enrolled facial biometric template to provide ready online and offline verification of test result. It is important to note that no personal identifiable information is stored in this process.

Frank Joshi, Director at Mvine, said: “Our vision is to improve public health and citizen privacy by using digital technology. The problem we are solving is the ability to associate Government-approved antibody tests for Covid-19 with you in a way that shows the test has been performed and which allows you to easily prove it, all without you having to give away personally identifiable information.”

The company claims it is possible to do this by using digital technologies which already exist to help adults and children in three main ways:
“First, without having to give away any private information to people you don’t know, to ensure the test you have done for Covid-19 is associated with you and nobody else. There is no room for error so we will ask you to agree to let the person doing the test to use the technology to make an abstract mathematical model of your face. It doesn’t take a photo, it doesn’t even scan what you look like. It uses artificial intelligence to work out a set of numbers which represent you and which cannot be mistaken for anyone else. Remember, this is all about not giving away information about you to people you don’t know,” emphasised Frank Joshi.

“Second, the technology helps the person doing the test, who might be a NHS keyworker or another trusted person, to match the test to you, and ensure your test belongs to you and only you.

“Third, you do not need any technology at all to be able to use the results of the Covid-19 anti-body test to prove to other people that you have done the test and what the result is.
“Once the demonstrator receives Government approval we will make it available to everyone who needs it. We really want to help the country get back on its feet as a soon as possible and help you to get on with your life in the way you want to live it,”
said Frank Joshi.

The progress of project is being monitored by Innovate UK.
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