A new standard in biometric authentication… A perfect two-factor authentication system that transcends the limitations of existing technologies.
– Implementing tamper-proof security with highly personalized lip movement patterns
– Easy authentication in 3 seconds, enhancing user convenience
Even a single still image or a five-second video clip can be used to create a natural-looking fake video. Masks made with advanced 3D printing technology precisely replicate the fine texture, pores, and even blood vessels of skin, fooling most facial recognition systems. AI voice synthesis technology has already advanced to a level that makes it indistinguishable to the human ear. Fingerprints can also be replicated using advanced 3D printing.
Deepfake technology has advanced, making facial recognition impenetrable, and voice synthesis has rendered voice recognition useless. Like the battle between spear and shield, as offensive technology evolves, so too does defensive technology. However, the reality is that the spear always outpaces the shield.
To address this issue, attempts have been made to combine two or more biometric authentication methods. However, existing multi-biometric authentication methods have fundamental limitations. They require users to undergo multiple authentication steps, are complex, and take a long time, significantly reducing usability.
TERAMIME offers a completely different answer to current biometric authentication systems: lip movements.
Developed by TERAMIME, LIPS-Security (Lips Intelligent Password System) is a two-factor authentication solution that combines lip movements with the vocalization of specific words. This lip-motion-based biometric authentication technology has received global recognition. This year, it was selected as a finalist for the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Global Awards and was also selected for the Ministry of SMEs and Startups' Startup Growth Technology Development Project. Last August, it was selected for SK Telecom's third AI Startup Accelerator, and last month, it won first place in the Seoul Regional Investment Bridge Program, earning it the highest investment attractiveness. Recently, it was selected for the Ministry of Science and ICT and NIPA's AI Computing Resource Utilization Enhancement Project, and was allocated eight H200 GPUs.
TERAMIME CEO Jaejun Park is currently a senior in the Department of Smart Security at Korea University. We met with TERAMIME CEO Jaejun Park at his lab at Korea University to discuss the future of biometric authentication and how it will transform our daily lives.
Finding a New Paradigm for Security in the "Lips"
Why "lips" of all things? Why can lip movements, rather than face, iris, or fingerprints, create such a distinctive effect?
TERAMIME chose lips because it recognized the fundamental limitations of existing biometric authentication technologies. Facial recognition was vulnerable to deepfakes, voice recognition to voice synthesis, and fingerprints to cloning. TERAMIME concluded that if all these technologies could not be improved, they would need to find an entirely new biometric.
"Not only is the lip structure unique to each person, but the movements used when pronouncing certain words are highly personalized. I thought that if we quantify this and analyze it with AI, it could become biometric information that's nearly impossible to falsify."
Lip movements are perfect for three reasons.
First, even when pronouncing the same word, everyone moves their lips differently. This is because lip size, vocal habits, and neural control patterns are all different. Like a fingerprint, this is personalized, yet unlike a fingerprint, it dynamically changes, making it even more unique.
Second, it's nearly impossible to fake lip movements. Even if deepfakes synthesize video, they must accurately replicate everything—from millisecond-by-second synchronization with voice to natural deformation of surrounding skin and physical consistency. This is technically extremely difficult.
Third, it's the least sensitive biometric information from a regulatory perspective. Fingerprints serve as lifelong identification, facial recognition raises privacy concerns, and irises are classified as highly sensitive information. However, lip movements are recognized as simple bodily movements, so they pose less regulatory risk.
Lip authentication was a niche market, untapped. TERAMIME believed that if it could seize the initiative, it could set a market standard and maintain long-term leadership.
Completely blocked with double security
LIPS-Security is a dual-factor authentication system that analyzes two types of biometric information simultaneously. The first is facial recognition (FR) and the second is lip reading (LR). CEO Park Jae-jun emphasized that only by combining these two methods can true "unforgeable biometric authentication" be achieved.
This differs from conventional multi-factor authentication (MFA). While conventional MFA requires sequential steps like "password entry → fingerprint recognition → additional code entry," LIPS-Security simultaneously verifies voice and lip movements in real time.
LIPS-Security's first authentication layer, the facial recognition system, analyzes the user's facial structural features. It converts the distance between the eyes, the length of the nose, the shape of the chin, and the overall contour of the face into 3D coordinates and compares them with stored data. During this process, the system even captures subtle features around the lips. Even with the same person, skin sags and wrinkles as they age, but the features around the lips can withstand these changes to a certain degree while maintaining individuality. This is why lips are the ideal body part for biometric authentication.
The second biometric is the uniqueness of lip movements. Each person's lip movements vary when pronouncing the same word.
For example, when pronouncing the word "hello," not everyone moves their lips in the same way. Some open their mouths wide, others narrowly. Some move quickly, others slowly. Importantly, these lip movement patterns are nearly impossible to fake.
Lips are composed of several landmarks (specific points), including the corners of the lips, the center line of the lips, and more. Tracking at 30 frames per second (fps) ensures compatibility with even basic mobile phone cameras. Ninety frames are analyzed over three seconds, recording the precise position, shape, and micro-movements of the lips in each frame. These recorded, unique characteristics of the lips become a highly personalized signature.
LIPS-Security simultaneously verifies dynamic lip movement (Motion Factor) and static facial features (Static Factor). Simply examining static lip features can lead to deception using 3D masks or advanced image synthesis. LIPS-Security also incorporates biometric signal detection technology to determine whether the lips are actually moving, providing deepfake defense capabilities.
"Deepfakes mostly target videos. However, what we verify are the subtle differences in physical lip movements. Just as a signature or handwriting cannot be perfectly identical, lip movements cannot be recreated."
Two-factor authentication in 3 seconds
The process for users to use LIPS-Security is surprisingly simple. Users simply stand in front of their smartphone or kiosk, look into the camera, and speak a specific word. For example, they might say something like "Today's weather" or "password" for about three seconds. Voice-less authentication is possible even in public places, noisy environments, or situations where speaking is difficult.
The system records the user's lip movements and recognizes their face. It then analyzes these two pieces of information in near real-time to determine whether the information is fake or not. Crucially, this process is remarkably fast. While conventional multi-factor authentication systems can take over 10 seconds due to multiple steps, LIPS-Security authentication takes just 3 seconds. This speed is so fast that users will hardly notice any inconvenience.
Targeting 2 billion users with lip authentication
TERAMIME plans to initially target the domestic B2B market, targeting the VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure) and ACS (Access Control System) markets. The VDI market is expected to grow to $50 billion and the ACS market to $40 billion by 2030, making LIPS-Security an ideal solution for both markets, offering both security and convenience.
TERAMIME's ultimate goal is to integrate LIPS-Security into smartphones in collaboration with telecommunications companies. If this is realized, over 2 billion smartphone users worldwide will use TERAMIME's technology every day.
TERAMIME aims to secure technological perfection this year, begin collaboration with domestic clients, and strengthen collaboration with global companies next year, with full-scale profitability expected starting in 2027.
TERAMIME's ultimate vision is for LIPS-Security to become the new standard in security. Once lip authentication becomes the default authentication method for all devices worldwide, existing complex passwords and multi-factor authentication systems will become a thing of the past.
TERAMIME is also developing the LIPS-Command solution, a system that allows devices to be controlled solely through lip movements. LIPS-Command combines eye tracking and lip reading to create a voiceless interface. This enables device control even in situations where hands or speech are unavailable.
The more we rely on security systems, the more paradoxically our trust declines. Deepfakes make it difficult to trust our eyes and ears, and voice phishing makes us doubt even the voices of acquaintances.
In this chaos, the lip movements presented by TERAMIME are not simply a technology. They are an effort to prove that we are truly engaging in secure transactions and connecting with a genuine person through tamper-proof biometric information.
As LIPS-Security becomes a part of our daily lives, complex passwords and cumbersome multi-factor authentication will disappear. Whether it's bank transfers, hospital visits, or commuting to work, authentication will be completed with just three seconds of lip movement. If the future envisioned by TERAMIME becomes a reality, our lives will become that much better.
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