The new position of intelligent home: Intelligent Door Lock

If the 2013 is the cornerstone of wearable equipment in Silicon Valley, 2014 will be the year of the landing of smart homes.

In January 2014, Google spent 3.2 billion of dollars to buy a smart home start-up company Nest, began the internet giant's early layout, but also let more technology companies and ordinary users notice the potential behind smart home. From the United States to China, the giant and start-up companies in the follow-up and input stimulation, smart home This has been brewing for many years of the industry began to accelerate, and faster to walk into ordinary users of the family.

The connection and intellectualization become the main commonness of many kinds of intelligent home products with different morphological functions. Temperature control meter, home camera, smoke alarm, intelligent sockets, smart speakers, our family is usually no odd products with the intelligent tide began to connect with the Internet, through smart phones and applications to regulate. In other words, the user will be able to manipulate all the items in the home in the future through a smartphone, and at the same time be familiar with the family.

Intelligent Door Lock is another expanding field of intelligent home. Can be traced back to more than 1000 years of the door may be the oldest historical source of household products, but in the intelligent tide may also be the most important and most sensitive products. Although the password and fingerprint and other keyless lock equipment has been developed for many years, but the industry has not really been hit. Can the tide of intelligent home bring subversion to intelligent door lock?

Compared with the traditional key to unlock, access card or password lock advantage is that you can not need to carry a key, or can be easily replaced by password, do not need to change the lock or reset the key. This kind of door locks more in the hotel or rental apartments in the application, rarely really into the ordinary family use. There are also many applications of keyless door technology in high-end automotive industry. But these are not really smart locks.

I remember at the end of 2011, when I visited the mobile reading application Flipboard office, founder Mike McCue took out his mobile phone and opened the company door to take me into the tour. This is your first intuitive experience of the convenience of intelligent door locks. But three years have passed, the intelligent door lock is still a geek and digital Tatsu People's special pet, popularity is far less than other smart devices.

The current U.S. market intelligent door locks mainly include Kwikset, August, Lockatron, Goji, Danalock and other brand products. and the traditional lock business schlage, etc. are also eager to enter this emerging market.

The simple sign of whether a class of intelligent products is ripe and popular is the number of items that are on the shelves in mainstream stores such as Apple Stores. At present, Apple stores in the United States, Best Buy, home Depot, such as the main digital products store, only Kwikset and August and other two or three smart door locks on the shelves, and in China, Apple Stores can not find the relevant products.

Three advantages of intelligent door lock

Kevo Intelligent Door Lock set up touch chip

Compared with the traditional door lock or password lock, the key function of the intelligent door lock is through the Bluetooth technology, with the help of the smartphone and the supporting application, the door opens directly through the mobile phone. The advantages of this feature are also obvious:

1, the smartphone has become a consumer to carry the necessities, the role of its commitment is also expanding. The function of wallet and key has been replaced by smart phone in the previous three items (cell phone, wallet, key). In fact, Google Wallet and Apple Pay to do is to let users do not have to carry a wallet and credit card. In the foreseeable future, users just need to carry a smartphone.

If the phone is out of power or missing, there are more options for smart locks. Users can use another mobile phone to download applications, login to their account, you can unlock. UniKey and other parts of the intelligent door Lock also provides a traditional key to open the option.

2, Intelligent door Lock allows users to decide who to enter the door and remote door. Such scenes are not uncommon: Relatives and friends visit, but they are not at home, our usual choice is to let them wait around the house, or leave the key to the neighbors. And with the smart door lock, we can open the door directly to them remotely.

In Western countries, this feature has more convenient application scenarios. Door-to-door help to walk the dog's friends or cleaning the room of the housekeeping service personnel, on-site maintenance of water and electricity gas network repairman (common apartment); With the intelligent door lock, users only need to authorize the designated personnel, let them in the agreed time to the door, in accordance with the pre-set remote open door. Instead of staying at home, or trying to leave the keys to them.

After they open the door into the home, the smart door lock will send a push notification to the user, reminding the door is open and who is open. After they leave, the user will also receive the corresponding notification. More conveniently, users can revoke the authorization at any time, and these people are not authorized to reopen the door lock.

When other people try to unlock the door, users can also be notified in time to take action. With the corresponding camera,

3, the intelligent door lock does not lose the key trouble, neither need to reset the key, also does not need to change the lock because loses the key. A purchase of an intelligent door lock can eliminate the cost of replacing the locks and resetting the keys in the future. The current intelligent door locks are usually powered by a common AA battery, which can be supported for up to 6-12 months. When the battery is low, the smartphone receives a reminder to replace it.

This setting is more convenient for today's Airbnb housing-sharing rental services. Airbnb homeowners can directly authorize short-term tenants to stay open and revoke authorization after they leave without replacing the lock.

In the United States lock market every year the new lock sales, the housing installation and the old lock replacement ratio of roughly half. One of the advantages of intelligent door locks is that it eliminates the need for frequent locks in the next few years, making it easier to get users with frequent locks, such as residential apartments and Airbnb landlords.

Introduction of common intelligent door locks

Ausust Intelligent Door Lock using the encryption technology of financial institutions

Kwikset's Kevo and August two smart door locks are sold on the shelves of Apple stores, but also the current market has been more recognized products. The Kevo intelligent door Lock, priced at $219.95, was actually developed by UniKey and sold by Kwikset. In order to better open the market, UniKey found a greater brand awareness of the traditional lock business Kwiset cooperative production of intelligent door locks.

Phil Dumas, the founder of UniKey, once Fille Dumas the ambition to subvert the traditional key-lock industry. The smart door lock seems to be no different from the traditional door lock, and it also requires a traditional keyhole. But their biggest feature is that users do not have to take out smartphones, Bluetooth technology and other locks will automatically sense the pairing of smartphones in the vicinity, this is similar to car keyless lock, but users still need to touch the door lock on the touch chip.

Kevo users can open doors to their friends and relatives on the iphone, and they can open the door with a finger touch. Without a smartphone user, Kevo also offers a car-like induction key, which can also be used to open the door with a sensor. In response to an intelligent door lock failure or battery depletion, Kevo also offers a third way to unlock the door through the traditional key.

The 249 dollar August product design is the cool style of walking, full aluminum alloy exterior design, no traditional keyhole. August's CEO, Jason Johnson, Jeson Johnson The selling point is "the combination of cutting-edge technology and cutting-edge design."

August uses security encryption, which is commonly used by financial institutions, and is theoretically more secure than traditional locks. Users click on the Smartphone application to open the door lock, or authorize friends to open the door. When the door lock is opened, the August user will be notified on the phone.

August is connected to the home wireless network, using four AA batteries, the battery lasts a year. However, if there is no wireless network or battery run out, users can also use Bluetooth technology to open the door lock. But the biggest problem with August users is that if they don't get to the door with a smartphone, they're probably locked out of the door, and the only solution is to find a neighbor's friend to sign in to the smartphone.

The 299-dollar goji is the most expensive of the most common smart locks, and the extra 45 dollars is required for a spare sensor key. This high cost is a direct impediment to the willingness of ordinary users to try new products. However, Goji brings more security to high-end users with its own camera.

Security concept is the biggest challenge

Goji Smart door lock built-in camera, the price is also the most expensive

But unlike other smart-home devices, smart locks may be the most cautious device for consumers, because locks are the most critical Guardian portal for a family. Intelligent door locks are also more challenging than other smart home devices.

Compared with other smart devices, the challenge of intelligent door locks is more of a concept. Traditional door locks for thousands of years to accumulate security concepts, it is difficult in a short period of time by the impact of intelligence. The difficulty of unlocking a traditional door lock and hacking a user's smartphone is not much different. Although the traditional door locks are often the case, but for ordinary users, the Internet security of the unknown psychology may have greater influence.

As an industry subversive, intelligent door lock startups must invest more energy in product safety than traditional lock makers. The level of the intelligent door lock must exceed the current difficulty of the traditional door lock. It can be imagined that if an intelligent door lock is cracked by hackers, it will be easier to magnify the fear of ordinary users and affect their acceptance of intelligent locks in media focused on the latest technology.

Compared with other smart devices, smart locks require more hands-on and learning abilities because they need to change their locks. In addition, in any emerging smart market, the design of outstanding products will receive more attention. Intelligent door locks must have the appearance of traditional door locks, so that ordinary users can rest assured that the need to have a unique design to attract those who are critical eyes, because they are usually intelligent door lock the earliest adopters.

Price is also an obstacle to the popularization of intelligent door locks. At present, the price of intelligent locks in the market ranges from 179 US dollars to 300 US dollars, which is 4-5 times the average lock. Similar to wearable markets, this area also requires spoilers that pull down prices in order to promote the accelerated promotion of intelligent door locks, thereby creating a sustainable ecological environment. Before that, perhaps the commercial market would be the main user of smart locks.

(Responsible editor: Mengyishan)