Identifying Pets by Nose Wrinkles? ... UNIST Student Startup Creates International Standard

UNIST student startup company Pairico has established an international standard for pet individual identification technology based on 'ko-jureum' (nose wrinkles). This simple nose wrinkle recognition technology enables pet registration and identity verification anywhere in the world.

UNIST announced that the 'Multi-Biometric Based Pet Individual Identification Technology Standard' developed by Pairico was pre-adopted at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) meeting under the UN, held on the 8th at KINTEX in Ilsan.

This pre-adopted (consent) standard is expected to be officially adopted as an international standard after a four-week period of member country feedback. Since April 2020, Pairico has been jointly developing the international standard for nose wrinkle-based pet individual identification technology with Dr. Kim Jae-sung of the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA).

With the establishment of an international standard that can evaluate the reliability of the technology, legislative amendments recognizing nose wrinkle-based individual identification as a method for pet registration are also expected to gain momentum.

Pet Dog Epitaph.

The current Enforcement Decree of the Animal Protection Act does not recognize nose wrinkle-based individual identification as a method for pet registration. Once the Enforcement Decree is amended, the pet registration process can be simplified by using methods such as taking and inputting photos of the nose instead of the existing method of implanting chips in the body.

Through this, the currently low pet registration rate, which is around 50%, is expected to improve. The low pet registration rate has also been identified as an obstacle to the activation of pet insurance, a national policy task.

Kim Tae-heon, CEO of Pairico, said, “We feel proud to have played a leading role in Korea becoming the first country in the world to establish an international standard for pet nose wrinkle individual identification technology,” and added, “We will actively pursue overseas expansion so that advanced pet countries can adopt our technology.”

Pairico is a company that provides pet registration solutions based on biometric information such as nose wrinkles and iris patterns. With this standard adoption, Pairico has secured a solid advantage in related intellectual property rights.

In the second half of this year, Pairico plans to conduct a pilot project issuing 'dog ID cards,' a pet dog identity card, using nose wrinkle recognition technology after receiving regulatory sandbox demonstration special designation.

CEO Kim Taeheon is holding his pet dog and taking a photo.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.