Comments on: Keylock Biometric Fingerprint Door Lock

By: Jason

Jason — Sun, 17 May 2009 23:45:19 +0000

We went through a few fingerprint locks that we got at http://www.AvidBiometrics.com With rechargeable quality batteries, they aren’t as much of a nuisance.

Some of the newer locks can recharge themselves through an alternate powersource or power hinge. It’s only a matter of time before it is refined to a T.

By: jds srivastava

jds srivastava — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 10:33:04 +0000

i also have this lock but i am not satisfy with this and i loss user mannual
so can not use this

By: johnseattle

johnseattle — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 23:06:07 +0000

I just purchase keylock86 from http://www.akmelock.com . It is only $249 and free shipping. The lock work great.

By: npeters

npeters — Fri, 25 May 2007 20:03:23 +0000

I just started looking into biometrics for some writing that I’m doing, and I too had the question about what you do if the batteries die while you’re gone, and you can’t get back in. My seven year old daughter overheard me talking to my husband about it, and came up with a novel but simple answer:

“Mom, why don’t you just keep batteries in the car so that you can replace them when you get home if they need to be changed?”

From the mouths of babes…

By: moldor

moldor — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 22:00:19 +0000

We looked at all sorts of locks here in Australia when we bought in a rural area – RFID, biometric, swipe card, keyfob remote – and all suffer from the same battery problem unless you use something like a “power transfer hinge” (i.e. a special door hinge that allows power to be routed to a door lock).

Problem with that is that we suffer from frequent inconvenient power outages in this area and short of putting the locks on a UPS, which is an expensive option, we stayed with key locks.

Fortunately, in this area, crime is almost non-existant and even neighbors who can’t stand each other (we only have one !) tend to keep an eye on stranger’s comings and goings.

Lockwood do manufacture a keyless lock that is a “mechanical” push-botton lock, and needs no battery – you can see it at Lockwood NZ – their only disadvantage is that you have to remember a 5 or 6 digit code and, given enough time and/or luck, they can be cracked. Most people don’t vary the factory-preset “ABC123 ” key combo, making them a fairly pointless exercise.

They do, however, come with a key override.

I guess the only really REALLY reliable electronic lock would be a DNA-based one, or a retina scan lock, where active blood flow and/or temperature could be measured, avoiding the “body part removal” option for serious criminals (hand removal – Hally Berry in James Bond, and eye removal – some bad dude in Sylvester Stalone’s “Judge Dredd”.)

Ah well, back to the Sci-Fi movies…:-)

By: viqsi

viqsi — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 06:31:37 +0000

Y’know, I look at this and at that RFID lock and I just can’t help but think “what happens when the batteries run out?”

By: Meredyth

Meredyth — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 15:46:18 +0000

Interesting review. I found it interesting that a device that focuses on security (biometrics being a controvesrial security topic aside) doesn’t have a larger range of numbers on the keypad!

Speaking of controversial security devices, has anyone seen the RFID door lock?

http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/electronic/77af/

By: isobutane

isobutane — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 09:46:37 +0000

Did any of you see the Mythbusters episode where they cracked a biometric lock using nothing more than a Xerox copy of a fingerprint held against the finger? No matter what kind of ingenious protection you put up…if someone wants in, they are going to get in. Better to put the money into a decent security system.

By: woofb

woofb — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 09:43:05 +0000

I’ll add my anti-fingerprint rant, too.

Airwick wrote:

Reason #1: The Malaysian guy who had his finger cut off:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4396831.stm

Yes. I remember in _Blakes 7_ (Brit SF TV show), one of the characters holding the security guard’s hand to the lock and explaining very reasonably ‘We only need the hand’. Apparently this idea turns up in a few films as well.

But it needn’t be as drastic as that. Apparently latex fake-fingerprints are already possible, or at least being worked-on. If biometrics are brought in too fast and hard because it’s ‘proper security’, the only thing we can be sure of is the criminals won’t be too far behind learning how to (mis)use the new technology.

Airwick wrote:

Reason#2: If biometrics are used on a large scale – it really just means that one is then using the same password on all of the affected systems. Any large scale use means a common encoding system – so that, for instance, your fingerprint gets encoded as some specific series of letters and numbers. While it may take a cut off finger to create the code the ‘right way’ using the fingerprint sensor – on any connected system, a creative cracker would eventually be able to find a way to communicate with the back end … pretending to be the scanner, and, in that way, get into the ’secure’ system …

I didn’t think of that, and it seems to be a good argument against this. It’s a good argument against any over-reliance on any single technological solution–all the criminals need is one breaking-point the inventors didn’t think of, and they’re inside the whole lot.

You missed out the ‘ordinary consumer’ reason for being against fingerprint biometrics in consumer items, btw:

Reason 3:
As currently implemented, the technology is far too unreliable for use. I tend to get annoyed by popular consumer gadget TV shows or magazines (like Five’s _The Gadget Show_ in the UK) that test, say, a ‘fingerprint handbag’ over a short time and say, ‘Hey, isn’t this cool!’ Every single review on consumer fingerprint biometrics that does it properly (over time) that I’ve seen seems to suggest there’s a problem with ‘mucky hands’, and in particular that the reader gets so dirty under normal use that it becomes unusable and the user has to type in the password. If these devices worked 9 times out of 10 over a year or two they could be useful, but it’s nothing like that good. In fact, this review of the door lock seems to suggest that there’s a problem with registering fingerprints right from the beginning, and only chance provides the right sort of fingerprint for the reader.

By: Airwick

Airwick — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 02:40:00 +0000

This is a personal pet peeve of mine … as I’m completely opposed to the increased use of Biometric devices for security (assuming that a reliable device could be produced )

Reason #1: The Malaysian guy who had his finger cut off:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4396831.stm

I remember many a joke about that … but its happened for real … and the more biometrics get used, it seems likely that this will happen more frequently … my car or my house are not worth my fingers or my life … that’s what insurance is for.

Reason#2: If biometrics are used on a large scale – it really just means that one is then using the same password on all of the affected systems. Any large scale use means a common encoding system – so that, for instance, your fingerprint gets encoded as some specific series of letters and numbers. While it may take a cut off finger to create the code the ‘right way’ using the fingerprint sensor – on any connected system, a creative cracker would eventually be able to find a way to communicate with the back end … pretending to be the scanner, and, in that way, get into the ’secure’ system …

Thanks for listening … rant over …

By: Julie

Julie — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 02:07:21 +0000

Post your comments on the Keylock Biometric Fingerprint Door Lock review.

http://www.the-gadgeteer.com/review/keylock_biometric_fingerprint_door_lock

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