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The Intelligent Door Handle
Poromenos writes "Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute have developed the intelligent door handle. It combines a camera, buzzer, RFID locks and various other systems inside the door, making keys obsolete. RFID chips for opening doors will offer 'added advantages for elderly or handicapped people, saving them the trouble of wielding keys or holding the door open in order to get inside the building.'"
Keys are a tried and tested, secure and relatively intelligent way to secure a house.
I would hate to be locked out of my house because of a power cut (battery charge doesn't last forever), or ignored because I'm drenched (and can't be recognised).
This is a solution searching for a problem.
(Having said that, electronic locks in addition to manual gives best of both worlds (like incar central locking)
liqbase
When it comes to something so fundamental and critical to a building in terms of entering and leaving (access) one criterion comes to mind as necessary. I don't see any mention in the article, I've got to assume this is considered. Does anyone know if there is code to this requirement?
My question is this: what is the behavior of a door with that kind of technology in total failure mode? What happens in a fire or some catastrophic event where the door
Is it designed to quiesce to a state whereby it behaves as an unlocked and openable door? I get nervous sometimes when I see technology used this way. (I'm pretty comfortable with the old pin/tumbler systems, and am perfectly aware they're not foolproof, nor the most convenient...)
The more "features" something has the more ways it can malfunction.
The last thing I want to break or perform improperly is a door handle/lock.
If you "get" pointers add me as a friend (116)!
can it play mp3s???
RFID chips are just another kind of key. We've been using them on campus longer than I've been here for dorm access. We use normal metal keys for room access.
Only significant differences I can see is that the RFID chip will eventually run out of juice and die (my ID card has been going strong for over two years so far tho), and it's alot easier to "change the locks" if you lose your RFID key.
Does anybody know of a system out there to fit something similar to this to your vehicle? Something akin to the new Mercedes which detects the card-key in your pocket and unlocks the door with a button to start the vehicle.
Maybe they're compensating for the lack of DRM in the MP3 format!
the lock can still be picked. Just by hackers instead of burglars.
I do see this as an interesting idea.
I'm sure there are bugs/flaws now, but give it some time.
I personally love innovation and research.
Just imagine if all those who poo-poo'd the idea of the Internet/World Wide Web had their way.
If you "get" pointers add me as a friend (116)!
An RFID key is extremely useful to my family. My mother has really bad arthritis in her hands which makes it difficult for her sometimes to hold items like keys. My grandpa is also better off holding on to his walker instead of reaching out to keys. Though this doesn't take into consideration the fact that both are technologically inept.
Ooo man the floppy drive is broken. No wait. The computer is just upside down.
I always find these kind of things quite cool. You can store your chip in a badge or implant it in your hand (I'd personally go for this and there are pages on the web about a guy who's done it). The system can be designed to withstand notable cold/heat, and please note that nowadays' locks are unusable when it is cold/hot enough, so we're not losing functionality here.
These are the things that, one by one, will make our world look like "Deus Ex" crossed with "The 5th element", "The Matrix" and what have you. Not that those societies were any good... I'm just thinking about the tech thay used.
Now they just need to engineer real-life manga-shaped-and-*behaving* girls, and we're all set.
Global warming is a cube.
Is it designed to quiesce to a state whereby it behaves as an unlocked and openable door?
And on the flip side, how much security does that offer, and how many ways could an intruder make it fail?
does it make a 'wooosh' sound?
welcome our new door overloads
What's the big deal? RFID has been used to open doors for quite some time now. To get into my dorm, all I have to do is wave my wallet at a sensor by the door.
The problem is, of course, what happens when you lose your ID card...
> An RFID key is extremely useful to my family. My mother has really
> bad arthritis in her hands which makes it difficult for her sometimes
> to hold items like keys. My grandpa is also better off holding on
> to his walker instead of reaching out to keys.
Two excellent examples. Despite my own preference for mechanical keys and locks, this example indicates that something like this can provide real value to a lot of people.
How much does it cost? Would anyone honestly pay an extra $1000 just to not have to turn a key?
This message will self-destruct in 5, 4, 3...
Do the researchers at the Fraunhofer institute have a contract with the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation?
Well, others have probably already said it, but I will repeat. What in the world happens when you lose power? Take the New Orleans area, which many places STILL do not have power after weeks of time. No battery pack will last that long, I am sorry. So what happens when it loses all the power? Will it lock everyone inside? Will it lock everyone out? If they are locked out, that is worse then them being locked inside, especially when you look at the fact that this is aimed at the elderly! I can see the news reports already, "Elderly man freezes to death outside home because his door wouldn't open".
We were all warned a long time ago that MS products sucked, remember the Magic 8 Ball said, "Outlook not so good"
I'm away a great deal, and have need of being able to have someone pick up my post/water my plants etc, it is very convienient to drop a key off to someone so they can get in. Far more so than inviting someone round and getting there details into the locking software's database.
However I can see that once the info is in the database there could be an ability to set which of the people are allowed in, blocking priviledges to certain people at one time, and granting another. This would make the system ideal for someone like myself. Though I do see there could be some problems in the event of fire/some form of emergency in terms of getting in/out, one would hope these contigency plans would have been thought about.
http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/security/77af/
Would anyone honestly pay an extra $1000 just to not have to turn a key?
Health insurance companies might pay to have a house adapted for a person with severe arthritis.
"LINAIDH Is Not An Intelligent Door Handle"
"...in the unlikely event of power loss or a RoboDoor(tm) failure, you have also been supplied with a RoboKey(tm), which is based on a time-tested RoboCylinder(tm) technology. It is suggested that you hide the RoboKey in a secure yet accessible location, such as a magnetic case under the bumper of your car or a plastic rock in your garden."
The only acceptable defense of scientific results is to say that they were the product of the Scientific Method.
Give Mom a pretty bracelet with an RFID tag in it, and tape one to the top bar of Grandpa's walker. They can just arrive at the door and wave at it/bump against it. A device to pop the latch itself, not just the lock, and swing the door open an inch would make this great.
Still, like someone else mentioned, in a fire all this tech would be useless.
2001: A space odyssey should serve as a warning to science that you never never ever put the computer in charge of the doors.
And we had been worried about some top down centralized approach to AI where some military computer took over the world. The truth will turn out more bottom up and this simple step will be how the revolution will start. Before long the knobs will be silently communicating and making plans. When the end comes, we will find ourselves locked out of our homes and business and sent off to toil in the Pella mines.
iButton door handles have been available for almost a decade now. I've had them at home for 5 years and they have been available at most institutions that actually embraced an open security hardware platform for 10 years.
They rock.. it simply pulls a tiny solenoid to release the handle. the lithium battery in my doors have only RECENTLY needed replacement. reprogramming for new ibuttons is easy and I can even hand out time limited ibuttons that only work within a window of time on specific dates.
so they slap rfid on it now and call it innovative?
It'd be a lot easier to get into people's houses....
http://rfidanalysis.org/
...as others have commented, what happens when the power's cut and/or the batteries die? This is all nifty, but there is a lot to be said for the biomechanical lock (powered by a human arm, turning a key in a mechanical lock). I'd hope that the door at least has a non-electronic backup lock, although that wouldn't help much if your keys got locked inside...
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It would be just like a normal door on that front. If you want to get out, you just open it. If you want to get in, you have to unlock it.
There's no need for a failure mode or anything else. The internal knob would have a bog-standard mechanism that opens the door despite the lock. The external knob would be affected by the lock. An electronic lock still has a mechanical lock at its heart. It can unlock that mechanism by activating a solenoid, but there's no reason not to have all the usual levers in place.
We've had electronic locks with keypads for decades now. These questions have long since been answered. The only change here is that an RFID activator unit has been put in place of the keypad activator unit.
Really, I'm stunned that people are responding to this article in the way you are. How can you not know about electronic locks? How can you think these kinds of building code requirements haven't been worked out for them? This technology was around before I was born.
It saddens me to see people saying "I don't know about these newfangled gadgets" in a case like this.
my ibutton door knob on my back door has lasted 2 years without power so far. it has a lithium battery and only uses juice when an ibutton is touched to it for reading and when it needs to pull the tiny solenoid to allow the door handle to turn. The manula said I will not need to replace it until the red led start blinking and then I have 1 month to replace it.
If they can not make the rfid devices as good as the really old Ibutton door handles then they need to quit now.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
obligatory:
after opening does it say: "Thank you for making a simple door very happy?"
in this age of communication i'm just not getting through
No keyholes to peep through????????
What about hackers? I mean it doesn't take an idiot to download a program off of the internet that lets them crack your doors encryption
Besides, what kind of future door doesn't sigh.
Everything has a point of failure I suppose. Keys snap, or get damaged. Locks can just be damaged through wear and tear, although this doesn't seem as common as batteries being depleted or short circuits due to moisture. Although at our current level of technology, one would hope that these kind of problems are becoming less and less of an issue. As per your points, extreme heat and excessive wetness are probably problems for conventional locks too.
Batteries, for instance, could simply not be used and the RFID tags be passive, and the locks could be powered by the house mains supply?
C17H21NO4
Ok, some people have expressed some very basic concerns in regards to emergency situations. I would like to point a few simple things out.
1) House locks keep people OUT not IN, which is the goal here as well. I'm sure there would be simple mechanical method of opening the door in case of emergency, like turning the same deadbolt style lock that exists now. Difference is, this has the option of being opened from the outside using some tech and a motor.
2) LOCKS KEEP EMERGENCY PERSONNEL OUT NOW. This is why we carry such things as a rabbit tool, spreaders, and the traditional set of irons (axe + halligan). We break the damn lock. No problem.
Ok, so I came up with two simple points. But they are good ones nonetheless :)
The key itself doesn't need to be powered does it? Passive tags have no power requirements as far as I know, and since the lock is in the door, it could be powered by the house mains supply. The only problem there is power outages, which are not terribly common in most developed areas, but as you say it could still be an issue in less fortunate countries/areas where power cannot be taken for granted.
Backup batteries perhaps? Check them every x months like you do with smoke alarms?
C17H21NO4
And if this technology was as sufficiently advanced as they claim, it wouldn't matter how technologically "ept" or otherwise your parents are. It would simply be, like Clark says, indistinguishable from magic (although preferably without the muttered incantations.)
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
Is this not the same Fraunhofer that collects royalties for their MP3 patents? They are obviously just playing with all the cash.
If you add a man-in-the-middle to this, you get a nice way of proving SOMEBODY is standing next to the tag, even though the tag is nowhere near the door. This means I can stalk you in the supermarket while my accomplice breaks into your house.
http://eprint.iacr.org/2005/052
So with all this technology they keep adding to things, first cars, beer mugs, and now doors, who is to way that my house wont get a hypothetical BSOD, and lock me out when I need to get in, or accidentally opening the doors when I'm on a vacation? Not to say that these things are entirely likey, but we all know that cars with micro processors that control important functions fail from time to time. I think we're trying to fix problems that aren't there. As one posted said, keys that unlock doors work fine. I can understand using this technology for handicapped people, but that's when the avantages end.
public class null extends java applet { System.out.print ("Tabula Rasa"); }
Doors open you!
I have a prius w/ the smart-key system just like that on the lexus or mercedes. In answer to the "loss-of-power" issue. You have a small key that can be released from the RFID fob that allows you to manually unlock the door.
steering wheels on cars.
Evil people don't think they're evil. - George Lucas, Making of Ep III
Many people here are on about 'what if it fails'. The simple solution, it would have a MANUAL KEY OVERIDE.
Do none of you people have automatic gates on your houses? My gate has a motor to open it. I push a button and WOW it opens, it has so happened that the power and backup power was out due to lightning strike once. I opened the little gate in the big gate, stepped inside, unlocked the motor housing, then pulled the gate open. This has only ever happened once, so given that I use it everyday, getting wet to open a gate manually once every 10 years due to power failure is not a big price to pay.
Now as I said this is for big gate with two keys. For a front door it would be one normal key if anything went wrong. Added to that surely a family friend of neighbor would have a spare copy incase you did not have any on you.
Ooo man the floppy drive is broken. No wait. The computer is just upside down.
Imagine a beow... Never mind
I've been reading posts here about possible problems like power outage, hacking encryption etc. I believe instead that these door would be safer than normal doors for some reasons:
- Most thieves are not technology experts but rather junkies and the likes, so a door without a keyhole would confuse them enough. (at least here in italy)
- There may be "virtual keychains" allowing you to have all the keys in the same device.
I also believe power outage problems are not issues with a battery powering the device when the main source it unavaiable. If the power outage is weeks long you can always knock down the door (or to better say, have the fireguards do that for you).
They say you need an IQ of 10 to use a door. I suppose that number rose a bit now, eh?
Do they at least include a free towel with each intelligent door knob?
Oh well, what the hell...
If it gets mad at you, it won't let you in. Remember kids, intelligent doors require intelligent users!
I quote others only in order the better to express myself. -- Michel de Montaigne
Electronic locks are nothing new. Just go to any decent hotel and you'll see them on every room. What happens when if the electronic end fails? It remains locked. Or if the door is open, locks when it is closed and stays locked. Those features are mechanical and completely independent of the electronics.
What's different about all of this is that they've decided to tech up these basic locks. Is it interesting? Without a doubt. Does it serve a purpose? Thats the real question. Security wise RFID might not be the best idea. I don't like the idea of a lock I can interrogate automatically just by walking by it. To say nothing of the keys.
What you have to ask is where am I going to put this? Well It needs to be somewhere I can benefit from the various features the system offers. At the same time thought I have to benefit form only one simple instal. I don't see that coming together. Besides why do I need mic and speaker on my door?
Also I have a question of my own. What does it mean by wireless recharging? Did I read that wrong, or are they implying tesila coils at every door? I know electronic locks are generally good for years on their batteries. But they don't use RFID, speakers, mics, and cameras. So have no clue about power.
Electronic locks certainly have their uses. This seems intelligent handle looks like it takes the good things of electronic locks and buries them under a mountain of tech they don't need.
Well, in America most houses are built from dirt and recycled cardboard, so entering via a hole in the wall is even easier than going through a door...
Oh well, what the hell...
a. kick a hole in the wall, next to the door. b. break a window and climb in. c. kick the door in. d. kick the door on the lock, so that the jamb splinters and the door stys in one piece. e. ...
Oh well, what the hell...
Why do those religious pricks have to appear everywhere?
My new blog
Based on the headline, was anyone else expecting this to be another story about Kansas?
old people and drunk people!
but i'd rather have one that sighed contentedly or made the Star Trek Sound®
So any guy with an RFID reader could stand next to granny in the elevator and "copy" her key. I sure hope they ment some other kind of RFID then RFID....
A handle with sensors doesn't make it intelligent
Are there security risks? Could someone read your RFID transmission and use that to create an identical ID?
I can understand his not wanting cable. He'd have to learn a complicated piece of equipment, sure, but I'll bet he doesn't really want the stimulation of all those channels. As we age, our desire for the new and different wanes, and we become more creatures of habit. But truly advanced tech is as transparent to the user as that pacemaker is. Most people don't object to something new if makes them have to do or think less than they did before.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
I would hate to be locked out of my house because of a power cut (battery charge doesn't last forever), or ignored because I'm drenched (and can't be recognised).
So provide the user with a means of powering the device aside from land-line power. The lock on ThinkGeek has external contacts for a 9-volt battery in case it dies. Something like that would work fine. Instead of keeping a key under the mat, keep a 9-volt battery there...
It's important to have both types of keys avaliable, as one will most certainly will not always work.
-Palal
Basically, the technique uses a wireless sensor network to monitor door openings and closings. When someone turns the knob, a generator powers a wireless transmitter, which sends a request to some central authority, which determines whether the door should be opened or not.
The general term for these types of batteryless techniques is energy scavenging (or energy harvesting); there are many other examples of these techniques available on the web, and a book, "Energy Scavenging for Wireless Sensor Networks : with Special Focus on Vibrations," is also available. There is at least one company, Enocean, dedicated to the production of such systems.
... but I wouldn't trust a car with a Start button.
Ignore this signature. By order.
Well, if door handle is synonymous with door knob, I'd say that the term "intelligent door handle" is a non-sequitur. Everyone knows that doorknobs aren't intelligent.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
I can see people walking right into doors now. We all know those nasty bosses who would "show you the door" mainly by just deactivating your RFID access.
Building a healthy future; Connecting communities
The mistake is in assuming that you understand all the applications of a certain technology.
Look, maybe an intelligent door handle IS useless, maybe it's not. If you think you know the answer BEFORE you have built it and tired it out, you wrong. Maybe there is some un-foreseen advantage,maybe while trying to solve one stupid problem that doesn't matter you come across a brilliant solution to an entirely different problem. You don't know until you try.
Or to quote: "In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But, in practice, there is."
I mod everyone down who says "I'll get modded down for this." I hate to disappoint.
_______________________
If at first you don't succeed.
Has anybody thought about the dramatic difference in the difficulty of making a copy of someones physical key unless you have a very large timeslot for the metal cutting duplication as opposed to the relitive ease of activating and capturing the RFID tags resonse?
It seems to me that it's a matter of security that the metal key is difficult to copy and must be physically present for the amount of time it takes to make the dupe. That's a good feature as far as I'm concerned and losing that by going over to a RFID system is not an option.
BTW has anybody made one of these readers as a home DIY project yet, is there any security in triggering the tag or is it just a dumb transmitter when turned on by induction?
) Human Kind Vs Human Creation
) It'd be interesting to see how many humans would survive to serve us.
Boo because they come from Fraunhofer.
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
Need one I can slip on the collor of my cat so he can get in and out. Not the neighborhood cats or raccoons.
- Gronk!
In my days we used negro's as intelligent doors.
They didn't require any of these electronics!
Congratulations on creating a post that undergoes such an amazingly puzzling moderation that it stimulates me to post a reply.
What the hell is so score-5 funny about a "'wooosh' sound"?
From P K Dick's Ubik, the intelligent door:
...
Back in the kitchen he fished in his various pockets for a dime, and, with it, started up the coffeepot. Sniffing the - to him - very unusual smell, he again consulted his watch, saw that fifteen minutes had passed; he therefore vigorously strode to the apt door, turned the knob and pulled on the release bolt.
The door refused to open. It said, "Five cents, please."
He searched his pockets. No more coins; nothing. "I'll pay you tomorrow," he told the door. Again he tried the knob. Again it remained locked tight. "What I pay you," he in-formed it, "is in the nature of a gratuity; I don't have to pay you."
"I think otherwise," the door said. "Look in the purchase contract you signed when you bought this conapt."
In his desk drawer he found the contract; since signing it he had found it necessary to refer to the document many times. Sure enough; payment to his door for opening and shutting constituted a mandatory fee. Not a tip.
"You discover I'm right," the door said. It sounded smug.
From the drawer beside the sink Joe Chip got a stainless steel knife; with it he began systematically to unscrew the bolt assembly of his apt's money-gulping door.
"I'll sue you," the door said as the first screw fell out.
Joe Chip said, "I've never been sued by a door. But I guess I can live through it."
A knock sounded on the door. "Hey, Joe, baby, it's me, G. G. Ashwood. And I've got her right here with me. Open up."
"Put a nickel in the slot for me," Joe said. "The mechanism seems to be jammed on my side."
Also, in commercial buildings, it's quite common to have multiple entrances. Usually they will put electronic locks and magclamps on the 'public' entrances, and leave yale locks on the others, so that security guards are able to get in and override from the inside if the sensor on the main door fails.
Don't most of you use RFID access cards at work (HID corporation access cards are a major brand)? A lot of the postings here show a major ignorance of these systems.
There are two types of door locks where I work.
1) Magnetic. The power failure mode of these is that they unlock when the power goes out.
2) Mechanical. Here, a spring holds the latch bolt in, and when you wave your card, the latch opens. The failure mode is locked.
In both cases of these you can still exit from the inside. In the first case, you can go both ways, in or out, in the second case, you can just turn the handle and exit, but from outside you can't return.
The main building doors are magnetic. Thus you can still get inside if the power fails and it's freezing cold outside. The inner doors to the more secure areas are mechanical, and you can't get in with no power.
Now of course extending this to a single residence home is a problem, there is usually only one door. The problem here is that someone may get stuck outside in bad weather or a high crime area. In a large building or apartment, at least there is either a security guard or you use magnetic locks on the outer doors.
Now cloning would be a big deal. In an office building, a guard regularily walks around and will (hopefully) notice any devices left by the card reader to eavesdrop on signals. I doubt most people would notice the change (or be aware that it was not legit) on a residental building.
The face recognition sounds like a gimmick. It could probably be defeated by taking a picture of someone, printing it out life-size, and pasting the page on a paper bag over your head.
I'm drunk and a bit confused. Does this have anything to do with intelligent design? Cough.
Is the main problem for most of the elderly in this world the fact that they have problems opening doors? Ok, my Grandma admittedly suffers from having to fumble with keys, but then she's lucky to have a door to open, and a home on the other side. In fact, she's pretty overprivileged, when you think about it - does anyone here's Grandma not have a door at all?
This is nice, but what I'm really looking for is an ID for each user in a system such as this, and administration to remove individual users. Also, the user's RFID key would be able to be used in any other similar system. Of course, there needs to be some sort of security to it, not just a flat RFID. Perhaps something that has a (Randomized)challenge-compute-response mechanism in the key. There are many amazing things that can be done, and there are many big problems to be solved. From a security standpoint, though, pin-tumbler locks are WAY too easy to pick. I've not found a regular door lock that I couldn't handle with a bit of time. Were I especially skilled, it wouldn't even require much time. As always, security is just a deterrant and a certain group of capable people can get most places that they want to be.
People do realize that RFID is a radio frequency that broadcasts 64~128 bits when hit with a certain radio wave, right? I mean... 128 bits... that's not alot in terms of hacking and capturing... I know it has it's uses but..
please... let me sleep... a little more... yay, no longer annonmyous coward.
And what happens when the power goes out, praytell? Keys are used almost everywhere for the simple reason that they work. They don't require power, transmissions or anything else. Just insert and turn.
RF doorcard systems have been around for over a decade.
Just what is new about any of this?
Granted, things like this can really IMPROVE daily life for the disabled.
But then we better stop acting so surprised when people who take advantage of such improvements to live, then have trouble surviving in cases of disaster or emergency when these items generally fail.
I'm glad your mother and grandfather find this a generally less painful and safer way to handle doors. However, you need to understand that if a storm comes, and knocks out the power and they can't get out to flag down help, or to exit the home in case of flooding, etc then they MAY die where a more "old fashioned" system is ultimately more reliable.
TAANSTAFL. You can have all sorts of technological conveniences, you can even have them cheaply - but that doesn't mean that ultimately there IS a price. You just may not have encountered it yet.
-Styopa
In a hundred years....
"Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute have developed the intelligent door handle. It combines a lock and key for opening doors and will offer the 'added advantages' for people getting stuck outside during a power outage"
... doorknob.
Now I can go up to all those people who called me that and say, well, something. I dunno.... Ooh! Shiny!
Ooo man the floppy drive is broken. No wait. The computer is just upside down.
What the hell is wrong with not wanting cable? Have you watched TV lately? It's all crap. I don't want cable either, and it has nothing to do with being an 'slow adopter' or not.
Physics is good
At my school (Johns Hopkins) we have these for the security gate, as well as to get inside each individual residence building. Kind of cool just waving your wallet next to the door to get in, but I wish it was a larger area (like a few feet), so I could just walk up with it in my pocket and get in (I'm sure this is possible).
Sure, the RFID sensor may not work during a power fallout...and the fix to that would be just to add a tumbler lock as a back-up. The RFID tag can simply control the tumbler when it's able to, and be overridden by a metal key when something goes wrong, or the person doesn't have their RFID...
"Crime fighters fight crime. Fire fighters fight fire. What do freedom fighters fight?" -George Carlin
My question is this: what is the behavior of a door with that kind of technology in total failure mode?
You know, my initial reaction to this idea of a RFID door is "that's pretty cool, and would make a couple of my jobs a lot easier." I've been working at some form of a locked psychiatric facility, on and off again for a couple of years now, and locks and keys are a BIG DEAL. If security gets comprimised, it can cost tens of thousands of dollars to replace all the locks in an institution. An RFID signal would be much harder for someone on the inside to replicate (although someone on the outside could, I imagine they'd look pretty darn conspicuous with the equipment they'd need). Also, for the staff members who have to move quickly in an emergency, this could save a few moments while fumbling with keys and a lock.
But then I thought along the lines of your post - if people can't MacGuyver themselves a key (and believe me, I've seen a couple of pretty creative key-substitutes), then they're going to just try and trash the door. And if those doors can get damaged in any significant way that prevents them from working like "normal", then they become a safety hazard.
Until I see otherwise, I don't think I'd like to see these doors in a "life or death" situation. They'd be fine for some situations, but I can't imagine them replacing doors in a high-security area.
"What do you think?" "I think 'What, do you think?!'"
Wrong. There is a ton of great television right now. You stop watching American Idol long enough to find it.
This reminds me of one of his stories...I think it may have been Ubik. The scene where the main character couldn't get out of the door of his place because he owed rent, and the door refused to open, arguing with him as he dismantled it...
Maybe we DID take the blue pill. You wouldn't remember anyway.
We recently switched to some transponder system for the doors at work. I was skeptical at first, but it's really far easier to just push some button (without even getting the token out of your pocket) and being able to open any door. Doors can all be always locked or unlocked from the inside without a transponder. Since the tokens are passive, only the scanners require power, and they have batteries that are supposed to last 3 years minimum. The scanners are also 'dumb', they are not networked and don't keep logs, so privacy is respected, too.
Now add to the convenience the fact that it's far easier to replace a lost/stolen key, control access, etc., and that it's far more secure than 'normal' keys (I can open almost any 'security' lock within less than five minutes, and there are far better people than me, google for 'Lockpicking')... we have a winner.
As much as I usually dislike RFID, this sounds like a really good idea.
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Come on. I've got satellite here, so I receive probably almost 50,000 program-hours per week. Of that, I know of about two hours of regularly-scheduled, worthwhile programming per week (and one of those is currently preempted by postseason baseball). On the other hand, it was good when BBC America ran through the Blackadder series.
As another one who gave up on TV because it's apparently mindless pap, please provide examples.
Don't say BSG or SG:A. Checked them out, didn't like them. Same goes for Lost. All "reality" TV is an instant zero, as are prime-time soap operas.
Enlighten me.
IMO are some great shows. And if that fails i'll watch bsg or x-files dvds
"Those who cast the votes decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything" -- Josef Stalin
Good Eats, Arrested Development, SG: SG-1, Blues Clues, Dora the Explorer, Jimmy Nutron, The Fairly Odd Parents, South Park, Spongebob Squarepants, Danny Phantom, Lazy Town, That 70's Show, Street Smarts, Scrubs.
There are many others that people are telling me are "Quality" programs, that I am not familar with as I havn't watched them, or they are not my families demographics. My Name is Earl, Lost, Surface...
Then their are all of the one-off programs produced on the Big Head channels, like History, Science, Biography, TLC, Discovery as well as all of the DIY channels.
Then if you STILL can't find anything, most of "quality" programming from the past is available on a rotating basis.
The first thing to do if you want quality TV is to get a DVR. I love my ReplayTVs, and until the broadcast flag goes into effect, you could go with Tivo. This will mean that the 20 or 30 hours of quality tv that is on a week that is spread across a hundred different channels, will be on when YOU have the time to watch it.
I listed 14 specific shows that I could think of. In my 35 years of television watching, there has never been 14 quality shows airing at the same time, and I see no evidence that it happened before I was born. Thats not even counting the one-offs and rotating blocks. This truly is the golden age of television. (and don't try to play the "television is inherently bad" card.)
While I appreciate the attractiveness of simply waving one's keys and having the door unlock, a barcode or magstripe would be almost as easy and it would afford you much greater protection. Passive RFID can be read at a distance of 6-18 feet--more if a yagi or parabolic antenna is employed. Even the active RFID systems tend to have rather pathetic encryption. RFID for secure identification is just a bad idea, plain and simple. The only reason people are advocating it over other tried and true electronic technologies is because it's the latest buzzword.
GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH. RFID is bad enough, but unpowered ("passive") RFID tags are an obscenely bad idea. If it's a passive tag, then it cannot be encrypted. How long until crimminals develop a yagi antenna for "door-driving"? The typical range *without* a specialized antenna is over a dozen feet. At least with active RFID you still have the possiblity of *some* encryption, though size and power requirements will probably ensure that it is fairly weak. If you want an electronic door lock, use magstripes or even bar codes.
Am I the only one that sees the horrible security risk here? Sure, this thing will stop your average thug, but against a technology-savvy criminal even a crappy 5 pin tumbler Kwikset would offer much more security.
According to Wikipedia, a passive RFID tag (since TFA refers to them as merely "chips", I'm going to assume that they are passive and thus unencrypted) can be read at a distance of up to 18 feet. This is presumably with conventional readers. Even this distance poses a significant threat (one could find marks by simply around in any crowd of people with a covert scanner), but I'm willing to bet that if you increased the power output of the reader by an order of magnitude and designed a parabolic or yagi antenna, you could effectively read a passive RFID tag from across the street. For a criminal interested in a specific house or business, this means that constructing a working key is as simple as aiming the antenna at the doorknob and waiting for someone else to use their key.
Christ, if you want an electronic lock just so you can impress your friends and be locked out whenever your battery dies, get a magstripe or barcode lock. At least those can't be read by a stranger from dozens of feet away. If you want real security, get a good pin tumbler with security pins and sidebars.
I don't have kids, which wipes out about half of your list right there.
I used to be a fan of SG1, and was kind of irked when the main cast started playing "Who can be on camera the least."
"Scrubs" is mildly amusing, but not worth actually making the effort to watch. Nothing grabs the attention anymore the way Firefly did, or makes me laugh incessantly like Tripping the Rift did.
There is no evidence for Intelligent Door Handle. The common consensus is that modern Door Handles evolved via Doorwin's theory.
There is a difference between "Quality" and "What I like". That includes childrens shows. I left all off all of the shows that I like, but are not what I would call "Quality" shows.
Tripping the Rift is still on the air. The new season started a few weeks ago. While I do watch it, it is not what I would call "quality" TV. I do think that the old SG1 cast was getting tired of the show, and it was coming through. I also think that once the Farscape cast gets settled in, they will be as good as the original. Farscape would have had an even better following if not for the muppets, so they should do well on SG1.
For years radios had been operated by means of pressing buttons and turning dials; then as the technology became more sophisticated the controls were made touch-sensitive - you merely had to brush the panels with your fingers; now all you had to do was wave your hand in the general direction of the components and hope. It saved a lot of muscular expenditure of course, but meant that you had to sit infuriatingly still if you wanted to keep listening to the same programme.
-Doug Adams
Well, it's not like the current system is any more secure. Most locks aren't *that* hard to pick. In fact, I've got a lock box (Brinks) that it as easy to pick as open with a key (given, it's kinda cheap, but it is still a 5 pin lock). Most buildings have master keys, and IIRC there's a rather simple way to make one given any key based on it. Of course, even if you have the best lock in the world, what is the average door made of? A couple inches of wood? A couple sheets of metal? Or how about the bolt? I suspect that it's magnetic, so perhaps a strong magnet could pull it (just speculation on my part here). The point is that despite its insecurities, it's on the same level of security as the current system, only more convenient.
There is a difference between "Quality" and "What I like".
;)
Actually, there isn't. Both are entirely subjective.
That includes childrens shows.
While I have no problem in concept with educational TV (anyone else fondly remember Square One TV?), current offerings don't hold a candle to shows like Mr. Wizard's World, instead following the lead of the U.S. educational system in viewing children as babbling morons. And yes, I have been forced to endure them on occasion, thanks to the result of my sister's indiscretions that I refer to as "that little s**t."
Tripping the Rift is still on the air.
Now THAT is good news. Maybe it was a regional thing, but they took it off here for awhile. Maybe I'll use my TV for something other than a DVD monitor for 30 mins/wk after all.
I also think that once the Farscape cast gets settled in, they will be as good as the original. Farscape would have had an even better following if not for the muppets, so they should do well on SG1.
I loved Farscape, muppets and all. And I loved SG-1 for a long time, too. I just think SG-1 is past its prime and running short of ideas. Maybe one-too-many death/resurrections killed it, who knows.
Like I said, "Quality TV" is so subjective a term as to be entirely meaningless to anyone other than the one using it. Honestly, the challenge was intended so that I might be informed to a few diamonds I may have missed in the cesspool of cable TV. It worked too. I never new they brought back TtR until now.
It still misses, IMHO:
Of course, one feature must be left out, for space and cost reasons, as reported by the R&D dept.:
I know of about two hours of regularly-scheduled, worthwhile programming per week (and one of those is currently preempted by postseason baseball).
The OC?????
The point is that despite its insecurities, it's on the same level of security as the current system, only more convenient.
Same level of security? Ha.
1. Picking takes skill (I'm not saying it's super hard; I'm just saying you can't do it reliably without days or weeks of practice. At least, that's how long it took me, and I still can't do high or even medium security locks reliably.) There are a few easier ways of doing it (no, a magnet would not work against a pin tumbler, though there is a famous example of a 128-bit electronic key lock being defeated by a 39 euro magnet), but they all have limitations and they all require one invest a significant amount of time learning them. Once the tools are designed to defeat this lock, any halfwit can download them, buy a scanner off of eBay, and be "picking" these electronic locks in no time, with a minimum investment of skill (maybe 15 minutes to experiment with the thing, or a few hours to build a homemade yagi/parabolic antenna.)
2. This method of "picking" leaves behind no trace. This is very important, especially if your valuables are insured. If there is no trace of entry and you cannot otherwise prove theft, your insurance company may deny your claim. Nearly every other method of lockpicking will leave traces, including conventional picking, pick guns, bump keys (unless it is carefully designed and used with a soft touch... even then, microscopic analysis might reveal something), raking, scrubbing, will all leave telltale scratches and small bits of metal.
3. A thief can find vulnerable targets en mass. There are several expensive locks out nowadays that are trivially bypassed-- Mul-T-Locks, for instance, are very pick-resistant in most regards but it's now found that most of the time they can be easily bypassed in under 5 seconds with a well-made "bump key". However, an enterprising criminal does not necessarily know which houses have this type of lock. With the passive RFID lock, on the other hand, a criminal can find the locks by "door-driving" and following people home or by noting their license plates and getting a pal at the DMV to look them up for him (thus giving him addresses to match every key he scans.) If this lock gains popularity, he could theoretically scan dozens or hundreds of keys given a few days work. He knows where the locks that match these keys are, and he knows that this is an expensive lock, so the house likely has expensive goodies in it. Compare this to a thief who knows about the Mul-T-Lock vulnerability, knows how to make the bump key, yet has to resort going door to door in well to do neighborhoods, trying not to look suspicious, making progress at maybe 1/100 the rate of the criminal with the RFID scanner.
4. A thief can defeat a single target with ease. Let's say he has discovered that there are many valuables in this ONE PARTICULAR house or business. If the house has a quality pin tumbler on it (i.e. one that probably costs half what this electronic nightmare costs), he will have a very hard time getting in quietly, without damaging anything. A good pin tumbler with sidebars, security pins, trap pins, etc. will take a PROFESSIONAL LOCKSMITH at least 10 minutes to pick, possibly much longer. I'm not saying the thief couldn't figure out a quick and efficient way inside, but it would definitely take skill, time, and creativity (we're assuming throwing a brick through the window or drilling holes in the door is too risky for our clever thief. Perhaps the house is right next to a police station.) On the other hand, if the house has one of these handy-dandy RFID locks, it's a simple matter of hooking a parabolic or yagi antenna up to a scanner you bought off of eBay and aiming it at the doorknob. The next time anyone tries to open the door, their key will be brought into line of sight of your scanner (hidden somewhere across the street) and you will have their code.
In a nutshell, anyone who buys this thing is paying much MORE for much LESS securi
Wow! Can you say "retro"?
My brother's old '52 Ford truck had push button start. Stock from the factory. Had to use a key to turn on the ignition, then push the starter button. Some cars had a push button on the floor to start them.
Door locks were optional back then too. (Back then, people were more honest.)
He added his own anti-theft device -- an electronic fuel pump with a hidden switch. If you tried to steal it, it would quickly run out of gas. ("Oops, we ran out of gas. Guess we have to look at the stars," was handy for dates, too.)
You bring up several interesting points, but I still maintain that it's on the same level of security as a traditional lock.
Picking takes skill
As does any technological approach. Given, I would expect that most people reading this site could figure it out, but I would guess that the difficulty of the two attacks are roughly the same. Remember, the average person doesn't know how to pick locks, but they also couldn't tell you what encryption or RFID is either. A downloadable attack against a certain type of RFID lock is roughly equivalent (IMHO) to learning how to exploit a certain flaw in a normal lock (credit card trick for instance). RFID locks would have the disadvantage of someone remotely working with them, but on the other hand, they also have the possibility of being upgraded (challenge/response with a 512 bit RSA key would be nice).
This method of "picking" leaves behind no trace.
And why would most thieves care? I'm not talking about people stealing priceless paintings and stuff (which I imagine this system won't be used to protect), more like the traditional break-in and steal anything of value stuff. In the latter case I would assume most thieves would want their victims to get insurance money. It makes their actions a little better morally (from their standpoint), and if they felt so inclined they could come back later and steal from the same place again when everything got replaced.
A thief can find vulnerable targets en mass
Most homes have garage doors, which would suffer from the same problem, and businesses, at night, are pretty much devoid of people, so walking around looking at lock brands doesn't seem like it'd be difficult. As for garage doors, some use an 8 bit static code, so I think we both know how (in)secure that is. As for the ones that use a rolling code, they are a little more difficult. With 2^37 possibilities (2^40 - 256 accepted codes) and a reasonably secure opener (won't take 2^7 tries a second) it wouldn't be practical to sit around trying to crack it. However, since the RFID attacks you mentioned require observing the victim and the lock (whereas a lock can be picked on a whim), lets say someone recorded 10 valid codes. Using a computer to simulate the pseudo-random number generator I would guess it would be possible to crack in a reasonable amount of time.
A thief can defeat a single target with ease.
Similar to the above vulnerability, but I think you're overestimating the difficulty of figuring out which lock someone uses. Say they go to a suburb with lots of houses built by the same builder, or they happen to see which brand of lock a business uses on one door and assumes that they got all their locks on bid from the same supplier. This already happens with car thieves, they know how to steal a few types of cars quickly, so they look for those types.
As for the barcode recommendation, I would say it's still on the same level of security as these. Imagine a Kroger store clerk that setup a hidden camera. They get an image of the barcode as people showed their keyring attached Kroger Plus thing, get the name of anyone who doesn't pay by cash, and the address of those who pay by check. So by the end of the day they would probably have a few dozen easy targets.
...our RFID-trackable granny overlords. Er... ladies.
Great, Fraunhofer is developing this? Is anyone else afraid that it'll get really popular and then they'll start persuing royalties after a few years?