When you're already using your cellphone to
track your
wild domesticated animals, keep your family
safe, and even
buy gadgetry, you might as well use it to let the
butler in too, right? Waleli has revamped its GSM-doorbell apparatus, which allows pedestrians to "ring your mobile," so that a simple doorbell press phones the owner and allows for a full-fledged conversation to occur. After you've determined that the mystery caller should gain entry, you simply "enter a pincode" which triggers the system to unlock the house or open a garage door. New to version 2.0 is the ability to access the device remotely in order to create a virtual remote control; if you (or your significant other) gets locked out of the crib, the machine will recognize your phone number and release the latches for its master on command. While we aren't sure how much this incredulous convenience will cost you (or save you over the long haul), at least the GSM-doorbell allows for
more important keys to occupy that overstuffed keyring.
[Via
Textually]
posted Oct 9th 2006 10:36AM
That actually sounds really cool if it actually works. Granted, I'm sure you could hack it up with a Laptop and some Hinges.
In and of itself this device is a pretty neat idea, almost better than biometric locks in the sense that this is more like an intercom/lock. The only downfall I could see is if that's the only thing you're going to rely on to get in and out of your house then what happens if you lose your phone or the battery dies? I suppose you can always hide a key to get in the old fashioned way!
http://www.jonocono.ca
That would inevitably trigger a little sob/whine out of people who aren't aware of the fact that the machine will be using your cellphone's precious non-unlimited landline minutes, which will lead to rollovers dimishing, etc. while the idea that I don't have to fumble for a housekey anymore when I can voicedial my home doorlocks is a cool idea, I leave the house very frequently, I would say a good 300-400 times a month, (yes, 10 times a day), and those 1 minute calls add up.
Too much potential for hacking... If a purely digital system is protecting my home, I'm a little worried. If anything I'd implement a system like this WITH the standard dead-bolt system, not in place of.
And what happens when there's a natural disaster (or man-induced disaster) and the local cell towers go down... are you locked out until your cell provider gets things back online?
I thought caller-id could be spoofed?
But then I suppose the lock could be bumped anyway, so whatever.
So if you lose your cellphone, you lose your house, too?
Here's what they should be making...a GSM keyring.
Bung a sim card in there, and your keys now have a phone number.
Lost your keys? Just phone 'em up.
This can't be hard can it? Any uber-geeks wanna make one for me?
Um...what if there are two people living in the house? Whose cellphone rings?
needs video call then i'll buy.
I was going to do this for an engineering design project many years ago, only using the landline or ethernet controller as the remote interface instead. Although, I only saw it as a way to tell someone "Hang on, I'm taking a dump" or "I can't come to the door....please leave the FedEx box behind the bushes." If this were to electronically control my door locks, I'd be a little wary too.
ALMOST ANYONE who needed to get in your home really bad (even if you're not there) would be trustworthy enough to have a set of keys to your house already me thinks. Sure there are exceptions but then again, there are exceptions for everything....that doesn't mean we need to willingly accomodate all of them.
This technology already exists in many apartment complexes ....as teh one I lived in and am living in.....those outsiders want access to the building, need to dial the Apt # from teh intercom, which connects to the Apt owner's phone (cell or landline)....on press of one button, the door opens.....whats new in this?????
WOW pink my favoite color.
I have to say being able to call my cell phone to get into my apartment building has saved my ass on numerous occasions. I see this being far more useful in a small business or for someone who gets a lot of deliveries.