Lockitron: Keyless entry using your phone • Hacker News Board

Re: Lockitron: Keyless entry using your phone

#181

Post by stephengillie » Wed, Oct 03, 2012, 1:59 AM UTC

rtkwe wrote: post #167

stephengillie wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm really interested in seeing a car lock like Lockitron. "Empirically people are a lot less likely to forget their phone than to forget keys..." Especially with the PhoneWallet. I have my keycard, ID, and ORCA all conveniently on the back of my phone. The same tap gets me into work and pays bus fares. If I didn't have to carry a car key, I would just carry that 1 item.

Some cars already have that built in. It's a per manufacturer thing though.

I've seen Lexuses (Lexii?) with the keyless device that unlocks with proximity. Maybe a bluetooth pairing that unlocks when your phone is near?

All I'm looking for is one less item to carry, one less object in my life.

Re: Lockitron: Keyless entry using your phone

#182

Post by stephengillie » Wed, Oct 03, 2012, 2:05 AM UTC

samstave wrote: post #161

larrys wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Empirically people are a lot less likely to forget their phone than to forget keys," That also varies on whether you drive a car or take public transportation. If you drive, leaving your house requires taking your keys and it becomes a habit. Same with leaving work. If you drove there you need your keys to leave. A good way around forgetting keys also is a realtor style lockbox either on the door or hidden with a sp…

I bike to work and my wife is a stay at home mom. I pretty much never carry keys on me. I ALWAYS have my phone though. Quite frankly, I look forward to the day when my phone replaces my access badge/key-card at work. Of course there is the arguement "but someone could take your phone and access the MDF!" -- well they can always steal my access badge as well. I have forgotten my badge countless times in my career thou…

If your phone is iPhone-ish in size, you may try what I did. After getting a stiff-rubberized phone case (you stretch it around the phone), tape the cards to the case. If you cut a notch in an old card, you can have that be the card against the tape -- the rest of the cards can slide in and out against that card or the phone, and are held in by the force of the tape.

I call it the PhoneWallet. I made one for my droid Incredible.

Re: Lockitron: Keyless entry using your phone

#183

Post by 001sky » Wed, Oct 03, 2012, 2:10 AM UTC

stephengillie wrote: post #181

rtkwe wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some cars already have that built in. It's a per manufacturer thing though.

I've seen Lexuses (Lexii?) with the keyless device that unlocks with proximity. Maybe a bluetooth pairing that unlocks when your phone is near? All I'm looking for is one less item to carry, one less object in my life.

I've seen and used these as well. They are OK, but you need to still remember to bring the key-fob. Because it does not come out of the pocket/purse nearly as much, makes it (oddly) somewhat of a PITA to keep an eye on. Example: I read one time of a guy having this on his (Ducati?) Moto and after filling up at the petrol, drove back into his hometown to the Local pub. Later, Bike no longer works, has to have the tow truck come to take him home. What happened? He left the fob on top of the petrol dispenser. He was close enough to start and take off, but as he left, he "lost" the key. But never noticed, as bike worked fine (and it was not visible normally unlike a regular key, etc). Ergo, him stranded. Expensive mistake. Moral of the story is if you don't use it, you lose it. =]

Re: Lockitron: Keyless entry using your phone

#184

Post by flamingbuffalo » Wed, Oct 03, 2012, 2:12 AM UTC

stephengillie wrote: post #181

rtkwe wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some cars already have that built in. It's a per manufacturer thing though.

I've seen Lexuses (Lexii?) with the keyless device that unlocks with proximity. Maybe a bluetooth pairing that unlocks when your phone is near? All I'm looking for is one less item to carry, one less object in my life.

I think all the new Dodge models (even base trim) have keyless these days as well. Hopefully it it catches on for all makes, it's a pretty nice feature.

Re: Lockitron: Keyless entry using your phone

#185

Post by kin » Wed, Oct 03, 2012, 2:52 AM UTC

TeMPOraL wrote: post #144

trotsky wrote: post #21

relies on your phone working 2.4 Ghz your internet connection your power their datacenter their website software to avoid carrying a key? anyone in the area could easily ddos off your wireless more or less permanently by spamming disconnect. doesn't seem like a very good risk/reward ratio to me. whats the problem with a more traditional (read local) keyless approach? door too thick?

> relies on > (...) > their datacenter > their website software This is a thing I find increasingly bewildering/disturbing about new hacks like that. Why do we route signals around the whole world to communicate two devices that are few meters apart? Also, having to go through third party's computer infrastructure sounds like a huge waste of resources. Bluetooth, NFC or WLANs are the tools we should be using.

The use case for WiFi would be if I were at work and wanted to let someone in.

Re: Lockitron: Keyless entry using your phone

#186

Post by prince_hakeem » Wed, Oct 03, 2012, 3:07 AM UTC

yawn solution looking for a problem just like Square's cardcase app... my keys work just fine and the security hole opened by putting my home lock on the internet is not something I'd feel comfortable with. Just like I don't want to "pay with my name" at the coffee shop. All these projects intended to save me seconds of time.. yawn

Re: Lockitron: Keyless entry using your phone

#187

Post by ruswick » Wed, Oct 03, 2012, 4:08 AM UTC

Is this a neat idea? Sure. But it's nowhere near $150 worth of value. (And, based on their "limited time" copy, it's likely going to rise to a more egregious price in the future.) I'm actually dumbstruck that they've sold 2500 of these. Admittedly, not having leave your couch to lock up or being able to check the status of your locks remotely is by all means a nice offering, but for the price, it's just not worth it.

Incidentally, this is also just a workaround. It's a hack. It's likely not to work in all homes or with all locks.

Moreover, this thing will likely look out of place and fairly undesirable on most doors, especially on older buildings.

An actual installable lock would be incredibly more compelling due to the fact that it will be less bulky and intrusive.

Re: Lockitron: Keyless entry using your phone

#188

Post by scragg » Wed, Oct 03, 2012, 4:15 AM UTC

Anyone else notice one of the engineers does not blink in the video?

Re: Lockitron: Keyless entry using your phone

#189

Post by jonknee » Wed, Oct 03, 2012, 4:17 AM UTC

stephengillie wrote: post #181

rtkwe wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some cars already have that built in. It's a per manufacturer thing though.

I've seen Lexuses (Lexii?) with the keyless device that unlocks with proximity. Maybe a bluetooth pairing that unlocks when your phone is near? All I'm looking for is one less item to carry, one less object in my life.

My car (a Hyundai) is keyless like that so you just need the key to be on your person. There's no technical reason why this couldn't be done with NFC on a mobile phone, but I think the excuse would be about car thefts. Modern cars all use chipped keys that are really stringently tied to dealers and car thefts have plummeted during recent years.

It's a lot more convenient than I would have guessed though, one of the nice bits that I noticed is my car lights up when I walk up to it at night. Not bright, but the LED under the mirror illuminates the ground around the driver side door. Very neat.

Re: Lockitron: Keyless entry using your phone

#190

Post by yinyinwu » Wed, Oct 03, 2012, 4:21 AM UTC

ruswick wrote: post #187

Is this a neat idea? Sure. But it's nowhere near $150 worth of value. (And, based on their "limited time" copy, it's likely going to rise to a more egregious price in the future.) I'm actually dumbstruck that they've sold 2500 of these. Admittedly, not having leave your couch to lock up or being able to check the status of your locks remotely is by all means a nice offering, but for the price, it's just not worth it.…

I think this is a great idea, and would be really useful for any place where you need to give a lot of people access to the building. If you're renting your home out through Airbnb, being able to give people temp access to your home would be really convenient and also safer than giving them a physical key that they can copy. If you're renting out an apartment or office, lockitron will save the landlord from having to rekey the building after each tenant. The $150 cost is easily recouped if you consider the cost of getting new locks. When I'm expecting the maid to come over to my house, I would love to give them remote access if I'm not home. I'd expect the look of the lock to change substantially with updates, but the conveniences it brings is pretty amazing.