I’m reading this with quite a bit of interest today:
http://appleinsider.com/articles/13/10/30/review-kwiksets-bluetooth-enabled-kevo-deadbolt-lock
Basically, it’s a lock system that uses a combination of bluetooth, proximity sensors and your iPhone to provide you with a modern day key-less system.
Per the UniKey website:
“Your Phone is now your Key
It all starts with the Kevo mobile app that you can download for free from the Apple App store. This app allows you to set up your Kevo lock, send, disable or delete eKeys, as well as manage Kevo fobs.”
So basically, you either download an app for your iPhone or use a Kevo fob (plastic key with a chip inside) register it with the lock, and then you’re supposed to be good to go. When you touch the door knob, the lock automatically searches for your device and unlocks the door when it detects it.
Sounds a bit too simple for safety, but Kevo has built in a fair number of safeguards to keep you safely in control. For example, the lock is able to sense if you’re approaching the door from inside or outside the house, thus preventing it from unlocking (if you’re just going to check who’s at the door for example).
House owners can also remotely deny access from previously authorised devices, and that all devices will have to first be calibrated with the lock before use.
All well and good, and I’m quite confident it’s secure and good, but does anyone else wonder if these are early signs of how integral our personal devices are becoming to our everyday lives?
In a not-so-distant future, it might well be our phones (or whatever iteration of them exists at the time) that we don’t live home without. Which begs the question: at what point does convergence for convenience become dependence?
The next question of course, is : when does this dependence become a danger to us all?
Simple exercise in point – imagine the world today going a week without electricity.
The chaos that would ensue!
The Next Big Think SG 