What started out as a simple security solution with the combination of fingerprint and traditional lock surprisingly turned into a more complex and costly endeavor.
For instance, most people do not carry their house keys anymore and what is worse; they don’t even remember who has them (in case it gets lost or forgotten). This usually results in hiring locksmiths to break open the door, having to replace the entire door hardware (and possibly the whole door), along spending money on new keys.
To resolve this problem, provide an integrated keyless living solution that seamlessly blends smart lock technology together with access credentials such as fingerprints or face recognition. When building such experiences for homes, there are two aspects that are important:
1. Innovation is difficult when there are many incumbents in the market who have been here for a long time.
2. A unique, innovative idea would require a lot of resources to be put into it in order to build a complete ecosystem that solves the problem fully and completely with little outsourcing needed.
When trying to solve this problem, someone came up with an idea on how they wanted to use their mobile phone as their key instead! This was a very interesting idea because it had never been done before – you can think about anything related to mobile phones or apps, but not related to keys or locks at all! We decided to take this idea and iterate on it further.
The first approach (and the simplest) is to use Bluetooth Low Energy technology for keyless entry. It works only in the proximity of your mobile phone, which means that you either have your phone or not; it doesn’t work if you leave your phone behind. Though it has many limitations, it’s a great solution for doors where someone can carry their own keys inside their pockets. This also reduces the number of parts required within the lock hardware itself since there isn’t any need to build locks with embedded electronic components anymore!
The second approach towards building our idea requires creating locks with built-in fingerprint readers, which turns the traditional lock into an electronic access control system with a fingerprint sensor. Since it turns the traditional lock into an electronic access control system, you can do all sorts of things such as give temporary or permanent access to friends and family who are visiting your house, or give your cleaner access to your house when you go on holiday. It also allows you to send SMS alerts whenever someone opens and closes the door!
For instance, what if your house is equipped with digital mortise door locks and sensors to alert you whenever there are changes in temperature, humidity, or whether or not there is motion detected within the home? This will give you peace of mind when you are away at work all day. Or how about knowing whether your door has been opened while you are on holiday without needing to send someone over every few hours? The possibilities are endless!