Mvine Limited announces today it has won £49,000 funding from UK Research and Innovation from the funding competition ‘Business-led innovation in response to global disruption (de minimis)’ which opened Friday 3 April 2020 and closed Friday 17 April 2020.
 

Innovate UK has issued a Grant Offer Letter to Mvine based on its key objectives to deliver a full working prototype with detailed Solution Design and Architecture developed during this 1st phase of the project. This will facilitate real world testing, solution update and rapid development and full operational solution deployment within 2 months of the Phase 1 completion.
 

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.
 

This is highly innovative because the solution will not require identification of individuals and no identity information will be required or stored. This solution is an immediate zero trust on-cloud verification of an individual's Covid-19 test result status.
 

At the point of testing, tokenised individual test result(s) are bound to an individual's enrolled facial biometric template to provide ready online and offline verification of test result(s). 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 in a new and innovative way.”
 

“This project called ‘Covid-19 test status digital passport, with privacy protection for adults and children’ will deliver a fully working demonstrator featuring highly innovative technologies being put to use in an entirely new way,” said Frank Joshi.
 

“When we put forward our application to Innovation Funding Service we hoped it would be selected despite over 8,500 applications being made. The Government decision on 20 May to expand the funding envelope from £20 million to £40 million meant 800 funding awards could be made,” said Frank Joshi.
 

The project title is ‘Covid-19 test status digital passport, with privacy protection for adults and children’. The public description reads:
 

Mvine Limited, a British technology company, is working with Innovation Funding Service in the national interest to deliver a working demonstrator which applies leading digital technologies to solve a fundamental problem in both public health and citizen privacy in the context the Covid-19 pandemic and afterwards.
 

The problem we are solving together is the ability to associate Government-approved tests for Covid-19 with you, and all other members of the public, 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 objective is to facilitate a highly efficient process whether Government decides on a strategy of testing in the community, for example tests performed at drive-thru testing stations or tests performed at pharmacies or other approved environments where there is a trusted person to oversee the test.
 

We can 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 AI 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.
 

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 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.