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Lockitron: $500K of Reservations in One Day

blog.lockitron.com

41–50 of 94 posts

Re: Lockitron: $500K of Reservations in One Day

#41
Wow, congratulations to Lockitron!!

I stayed with the founders 2 years ago in Palo Alto after Startup School. I remember they opened the door remotely for me when I arrived and there was nobody home, it was amazing.

I had lost track of them until now, I'm really glad to see all the interest and support they are getting.

Re: Lockitron: $500K of Reservations in One Day

#42
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We don't take the money up front. We're authorizing cards as a minimal low pass filter. Primarily we need to know how many to make (or if anyone wanted one at all!)

FYI I downloaded your app a couple months ago with the hopes I could use it to replicate my NFC card for my building, but I hit your login-only screen. Can you make an a "Lockitron Labs" app or something similar that allows you to read third party NFC keys and replicate their signal on demand?

Actual NFC keys (as implemented on NFC phones) don't work like this -- they are much more secure (think of an exchange of freshly calculated encrypted information rather than broadcasting an unchanging code) and can't be copied.

Re: Lockitron: $500K of Reservations in One Day

#43
post #41

Wow, congratulations to Lockitron!! I stayed with the founders 2 years ago in Palo Alto after Startup School. I remember they opened the door remotely for me when I arrived and there was nobody home, it was amazing. I had lost track of them until now, I'm really glad to see all the interest and support they are getting.

Thank you Nico, it was great to host you. Airbnb'ing with Lockitron was incredibly straightforward.

Re: Lockitron: $500K of Reservations in One Day

#44
Not that I don't believe the fine folks at Lockitron, just a question about this Kickstarter-on-your-own-site thing that seems to be catching on. Since this isn't audited by an independent company (like Kickstarter) how do you blindly believe what the company says? Doing so would be a smart way to build more buzz, resulting in more success.

PS: The blog is down, so I'm not sure if they presented any visual evidence, such as an Amazon screenshot. But that's easily doctored too.

Re: Lockitron: $500K of Reservations in One Day

#45
post #4

I'm concerned about this feature, described on their home page: > If you use an iPhone 4S or iPhone 5, you can enable Lockitron to sense when you walk up to the door and unlock for you using Bluetooth 4.0. We call it Sense. Can it sense which side of the door you are on? If I'm coming in from outside, then having the door unlock as I approach would be useful. If I'm going to the door from inside, to look through the…

We're experimenting with this feature and really want it to work. We will keep refining it going forward. One really needs two radios or some very clever math to determine which side of the door one is on. What we have done for our development version is set it up so it can be in one of three modes. Always on (for passageways) so it consistently locks as you walk up and unlocks as you walk away. Always off (always di…

You should be able to figure out if the signal is coming from inside vs. outside based on signal attenuation. Systems are being developed to pinpoint user location indoors based on this technique. Fortunately, your use case is more binary: Is the bluetooth signal passing through a door. Any dBm above a certain number would just be assumed indoors.

Great stuff and good luck!

Re: Lockitron: $500K of Reservations in One Day

#46

Has anyone done a thorough security review of the lockitron hardware, etc.? While I know physical locks aren't that secure, people that couldn't get in easily with a physical lock might be able to trivially get in with an electronic one. I wonder if there's been any consideration to tying this in with Google's two-factor-style authentication system?

I agree with the hardware review, my major concern is not the cool digital part but the actual bits and pieces because locks break all the time, and this is essentially adding another layer that can break.

Re: Lockitron: $500K of Reservations in One Day

#47

I'd like to see an option for when i don't have my phone on me (keypad).

I kind of like that it has no external surface. I'd even consider removing the keyhole if it worked well and just having a perfectly smooth door. (would have to auto close the door and have a deadbolt snib thing)

Re: Lockitron: $500K of Reservations in One Day

#48
post #4

I'm concerned about this feature, described on their home page: > If you use an iPhone 4S or iPhone 5, you can enable Lockitron to sense when you walk up to the door and unlock for you using Bluetooth 4.0. We call it Sense. Can it sense which side of the door you are on? If I'm coming in from outside, then having the door unlock as I approach would be useful. If I'm going to the door from inside, to look through the…

We're experimenting with this feature and really want it to work. We will keep refining it going forward. One really needs two radios or some very clever math to determine which side of the door one is on. What we have done for our development version is set it up so it can be in one of three modes. Always on (for passageways) so it consistently locks as you walk up and unlocks as you walk away. Always off (always di…

Have you considered a patch antenna or something similarly directional right on the PCB? Still only one radio and reasonably robust direction detection as far as "is the signal coming from in front of me or behind me" is concerned.

Re: Lockitron: $500K of Reservations in One Day

#50
post #4

I'm concerned about this feature, described on their home page: > If you use an iPhone 4S or iPhone 5, you can enable Lockitron to sense when you walk up to the door and unlock for you using Bluetooth 4.0. We call it Sense. Can it sense which side of the door you are on? If I'm coming in from outside, then having the door unlock as I approach would be useful. If I'm going to the door from inside, to look through the…

We're experimenting with this feature and really want it to work. We will keep refining it going forward. One really needs two radios or some very clever math to determine which side of the door one is on. What we have done for our development version is set it up so it can be in one of three modes. Always on (for passageways) so it consistently locks as you walk up and unlocks as you walk away. Always off (always di…

We're experimenting with this feature and really want it to work. We will keep refining it going forward. One really needs two radios or some very clever math to determine which side of the door one is on.

This could be an added incentive for customers to purchase your hardware for both their front and back doors. Then they've got two radios.

In two-door installations, it may be possible to look at the signal strength as received at the back door to tell when the user is inside the house. That could get you out of the time-of-arrival calculation business.

Another possibility is a small, cheap IR sensor. If there's a person inside the house within ~10 feet of the door, it doesn't unlock automatically. The basic idea would be similar to the sensors on toilets and urinals in public restrooms.

In any case I'm glad to hear that my Tom Swift amulet is finally being made. Next up, the Triphibian Atomicar!

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