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Duplicate your House Keys with your Phone

shloosl.com

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Re: Duplicate your House Keys with your Phone

#11

Post by EvanAnderson »

ryan-c wrote: post #8
padwan wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I think you're right on the money.

I've decoded keys that I've seen people carrying on rings on their belts (and, in many cases, the pin values are stamped right on the key). I don't carry keys where people can see them, but I'm a little bit paranoid. With the advent of this service it probably pays to be a bit more paranoid, since somebody could take a picture of your key, send $5, and get a copy w/o knowing anything about pins and tumblers.

Re: Duplicate your House Keys with your Phone

#13

Post by EvanAnderson »

olefoo wrote: post #2

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.

Locks and keys keep honest people honest, and make people feel "secure". There's a lot of value in that. The actual security value most locks provide-- not so much. I don't think this service changes that dramatically.

Re: Duplicate your House Keys with your Phone

#14

Post by nextstep »

olefoo wrote: post #2

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.

If keys are useless, what are we using them for?

They're clearly not useless.

Re: Duplicate your House Keys with your Phone

#15

Post by olefoo »

nextstep wrote: post #14
olefoo wrote: post #2

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.

If keys are useless, what are we using them for? They're clearly not useless.

Useless, in the sense that they are less than adequately effective; a reasonably able locksmith can open most barrel locks in seconds. If a criminal puts it in mind to acquire the skills, opening the locks is a small part of thievery, getting around the alarm is probably more of a concern.

Re: Duplicate your House Keys with your Phone

#16

Post by lucb1e »

lignuist wrote: post #7

Next service: share your keys on Twitter and Facebook.

New: Login with Facebook!

At least half the people will not mind the permission to post things for them. When pleaserobme.com catches wind of this, they're gonna get a lot of renewed media attention!

Re: Duplicate your House Keys with your Phone

#17

Post by kapilkale »

Someone pitched me this idea a few months ago and I urged him to pursue it. I'm glad to see that it's being done by a super technical team who seem to know what they're doing.

Here's why I'm so excited:

1. Shloosl solves a small but acute problem that nearly everyone in the country has.

2. It's a big FU to a fragmented and unevolving couple billion dollar industry. I don't want to find a locksmith or go to Home Depot. I just want a duplicate key. And I don't care whether I pay $1.50 for it or $10 for it.

3. It's going to have some interesting implications on physical security in society. Locks are already useless to any unskilled criminal with a $100 lockpicking gun. But now, any clown with an iPhone can take a picture of a set of keys and have a working copy sent to anyone in the country within days. I certainly hope the security industry responds with something good.

I'd like to think the solution is a better kind of lock, but I don't know. Credit cards have been vulnerable in the same way for a while, but the networks or merchants essentially insure fraudulent transactions so it hasn't resulted in a real problem for people.

Either way, I'm looking forward to trying this out this weekend.

Re: Duplicate your House Keys with your Phone

#18

Post by ics »

EvanAnderson wrote: post #11
ryan-c wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I think you're right on the money. I've decoded keys that I've seen people carrying on rings on their belts (and, in many cases, the pin values are stamped right on the key). I don't carry keys where people can see them, but I'm a little bit paranoid. With the advent of this service it probably pays to be a bit more paranoid, since somebody could take a picture of your key, send $5, and get a copy w/o knowing anythin…

I think I just found a new people-watching side hobby. Next on HN: Burgling across Brooklyn as hipster keychains "pic-pocketed" en-masse...

I'm really looking forward to when I get the time to rig up my door so I can use my yubikey instead. Much easier than all the metal keys I have to carry around now, and much less damaging to my pockets and belt-loops.

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