Duplicate your House Keys with your Phone

#1

Post by slackpad » Tue, Apr 23, 2013, 5:15 AM UTC

Duplicate your House Keys with your Phone
shloosl.com

Re: Duplicate your House Keys with your Phone

#2

Post by olefoo » Tue, Apr 23, 2013, 5:29 AM UTC

I had two, almost simultaneous reactions to this.

On the one hand "oooh, that's useful, I need another set for loaning to cat-sitters."

On the other hand, "Keys are worthless now!"

The gripping hand is that keys have been worthless for quite some time, but we continue to use them. Whether out of habit, or because they feel sufficient.

Re: Duplicate your House Keys with your Phone

#3

Post by padwan » Tue, Apr 23, 2013, 6:09 AM UTC

How do they get the correct size?

Re: Duplicate your House Keys with your Phone

#4

Post by eps » Tue, Apr 23, 2013, 6:09 AM UTC

Oh, this is so going to be abused for copying other people's keys. You can now even Photoshop the "DONT COPY" embossing away. Very cool.

Re: Duplicate your House Keys with your Phone

#5

Post by padwan » Tue, Apr 23, 2013, 6:12 AM UTC

padwan wrote: post #3

How do they get the correct size?

Found the answer at http://shloosl.com/#more-tips

"For now, we accept only two types of keys. Chances are your house key is one of these."

Re: Duplicate your House Keys with your Phone

#6

Post by ck2 » Tue, Apr 23, 2013, 6:14 AM UTC

Linking a picture of your house keys to your house address - what could possibly go wrong...

Re: Duplicate your House Keys with your Phone

#7

Post by lignuist » Tue, Apr 23, 2013, 6:20 AM UTC

Next service: share your keys on Twitter and Facebook.

Re: Duplicate your House Keys with your Phone

#8

Post by ryan-c » Tue, Apr 23, 2013, 6:20 AM UTC

padwan wrote: post #5

padwan wrote: post #3

How do they get the correct size?

Found the answer at http://shloosl.com/#more-tips "For now, we accept only two types of keys. Chances are your house key is one of these."

I assume they're supporting Schlage SC1 and Kwikset KW1 keys which fit the two most common types of five pin locks in the US.

Both of these keys have a pin coding - each of the five pins has a value from, IIRC, 1 to 9. With a little practice, one can decode keys visually in a few seconds, I can't imagine it being hard to write an image processing algorithm to do it.

Re: Duplicate your House Keys with your Phone

#9

Post by blacksmith_tb » Tue, Apr 23, 2013, 6:26 AM UTC

ck2 wrote: post #6

Linking a picture of your house keys to your house address - what could possibly go wrong...

Well, to be fair, they suggest you can mail to another address (for those who don't work from home, the office is the obvious choice). I don't think the security implications overall are too worrisome (any potential thieves who care enough to not just break a door or window to get into my house will just bump the lock, rather than trolling Facebook to desperately try and find a picture of my front door key). But I am sure people will test the service by sending stock photos of hands holding keys...

Re: Duplicate your House Keys with your Phone

#10

Post by mmriis » Tue, Apr 23, 2013, 6:27 AM UTC

ck2 wrote: post #6

Linking a picture of your house keys to your house address - what could possibly go wrong...

my thought exactly.. an envelope with address on it and house key in it.. Sorry guys, but using your service would be stupid.. will insurance even cover a break-in using the spare key?