Multicolored Keyless Entry System

mollyhackit writes "Here's a how-to guide for building a keyless entry that uses color identification instead of numbers. All eight buttons are initially blue; as you press the individual buttons they change color. Cycle the colors to your particular pattern, and you're in. This lock obviously wasn't designed for high security use since anyone in the same room would be able to see you and your amazing technicolor dream lock's pattern; it's just a fun project and will keep the youngins out of your workshop (timer prevents brute forcing). The RGB buttons are monome clones from hobby shop Sparkfun."

Comments

Amusing, but a problem for one in ten men?

[SlashTon]

It's a fun project and a cool toy, but I hope it would never see serious application.

Considering that between 7% and 10% of men are red-green color blind (other types of color blindness at a few percentage points). This kind of lock could pose serious problems for a significant part of the population.

"What? You set the password to the garage door to Red Green Green Red? Guess I'm walking to work again..."

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorblindness

Re:Amusing, but a problem for one in ten men?

[NMerriam]

Only if the value is different can a color-blind person tell that the colors are different. If you tell them that the red is darker than the green, they can then tell you which one is darker than the other if they're next to each other, but if all they have is blue, brown, and yellow to choose from, they have no idea if that brown is the red or the green.

Re:Amusing, but a problem for one in ten men?

[cp.tar]

I'm colorblind.

Red-green, but not too badly. I get along just fine, but fuck those test patterns. There was some kind of a jumbo poster ad with that pattern, and the only time I was able to read it was at night, from a sufficient distance.

Certain shades of red, green, purple, brown and grey simply blend into each other. When I see something colored like that, I can't even name the color.
Kind of like someone tone-deaf guessing whether he heard a C or an E note. He can hear whether it was high or low, just like I see whether it is light or dark, but other than that, I simply cannot name it.

For instance, most of this /. page is green. Though it may be light brown.
The frame around the text field I'm typing my answer in is a different shade of green, but it might also be grey.
I'm leaning towards green, but I don't really see it.

Re:Amusing, but a problem for one in ten men?

[cp.tar]

it.slashdot.org has brown as its colour, not green :-) So it is not the colour blind, but rather, poor design that makes the it section look crappy brown.

Yay. You just proved me colorblind.

/mope

Re:Amusing, but a problem for one in ten men?

[JPeMu]

I'm red-green colour blind.

Many of the PopCap games (and similar) I have played where colour is significant have overlays shown (as an option) which aid me just fine, and I'm sure a similar thing would work here, even though that's assuming that the original would be unusable by someone colour blind.

The one thing that really used to irritate me was Teletext (before it faded into obsolescence) - Being unable to tell the difference between Green and Yellow, and Cyan and White made for trying times, especially when some insensitive clod chose green and yellow as two of the "fastext" colours. Oh, and chose blue for the cyan option (which looks white to me!).

I have no problem wiring a plug; only occasional problems wiring more complex items (whereby I am forced to use direct lighting to make the colour distinctions); and no problem with traffic lights. Only where I must choose between two shades that differ by red hue alone (or near enough) do I have problems. I know that red-green colour blindness is not the only kind, but it often feels like colour blindness is not considered when designing new products/websites etc. and I find that disappointing for lack of such a simple consideration.

Re:While occasional steps backwards are inevitable

[Fluffeh]

Well, look out captain obvious.

The whole point of this is that the person putting this together might enjoy the experience of putting it together, get satisfaction from a finished product and have a cool novelty way of opening or closing a door.

Do you think that people making transistor radios do it for fun, or because they think that $20 worth of electronic junk from a electronic junk store will give them better sound than a manufactured stereo system?

I rarely go to this level of pointing out a clear case of "swing and miss" with a reply/post - but wow!

Actually useful

[Anonymous Coward]

One reason it's useful - if you have a door lock with a code, you wear the numbers away on the keys that form the code, significantly reducing security. For instance, I have a bank card widget (standard in some parts of Europe) which I need to authenticate with my bank by means of challenge-response; it eventually becomes obvious what your card PIN is because those numbers wear more, and the object itself becomes a security risk. This way, your software can ensure even use of buttons.

Blind people and the colourblind need not apply, however...

Re:While occasional steps backwards are inevitable

[Stooshie]

... So now this is a hobby site? News for HOBBYISTS? OK ...

I don't know, but you may be a professional electronic locksmith and for you this might be just a play-thing.

But for me, a programmer, this is interesting and a good introduction to building a small piece of hardware. I know shamefully little about electronics (well, what I can remeber from 1st year uni. physics)

Doesn't stop me being a nerd though.