Robotic Kiosk Stores Digital Copies of Physical Keys

An anonymous reader writes "The New York Daily News reports that a startup company in Manhattan is putting robotic key copying machines in 7-Eleven stores. The machines can automatically create physical copies of common apartment and office keys. What's more interesting is that they allow users to save digital copies of their keys, which can later be created when the original is lost or the user is locked out of their home."

Comments

What could possibly go wrong?

[Simulant]

May as well just get rid of physical keys altogether.

Re:What could possibly go wrong?

[Smidge204]

Crowbar marks, splintered door jams and broken glass are evidence of forced entry.

Using a key leaves no evidence and may not even raise suspicion should anyone see you do it.
=Smidge=

Re:What could possibly go wrong?

[calzones]

I see a potential problem where if you loan your key to someone, they can duck into the store and quickly save a copy for themselves to retrieve at any time in the future. Or they might "borrow" your keys for this very purpose and give them back before you realize they are missing.

Yes, they could theoretically do this with physical copies as well, but that it more cumbersome and takes longer (having to go to a dedicated hardware store to do so).

I also see landlords not liking this technology.

Re:What could possibly go wrong?

[king neckbeard]

You can have copies of house keys made at Wal-Mart.

Re:What could possibly go wrong?

[TubeSteak]

This is what insurance for, though. Both ways of a thief getting in are what insurance is for.

Your insurance policy probably doesn't cover shit if there's no evidence of forced entry, but YMMV.
The police might not even take a report.

It could work securely

[jtownatpunk.net]

There's no technical reason why the kiosk system needs to "know" or store the physical location of the locks that match the keys. Create an account and pay with cash and there's no reason to enter any personally identifying information.

I think charging $20 for an emergency key is a kick in the nuts, tho. They're only charging $3.50 for a standard copy of a key you have in-hand so why are they being dicks about the price of printing a key you've stored? Well, obviously, the reason is, "Because they can." But it's still a dick move.

Also, I hope they've got some sort of approval method where a human looks at a picture of the key to see if it's marked "do not duplicate" before a copy is made. That's something I wouldn't trust to OCR.

Re:Don't kid yourself.

[adolf]

Heh.

Whenever someone I've known has had their house robbed by a stranger, there's tons of evidence: The place gets trashed.

It is a different story when you're being robbed by someone you know: They're neat and clean and precise. All you notice is that you go looking for your diamond-studded Rolex, and it isn't there anymore. But chances are good that you've already invited them in, anyway, so a lock doesn't help that situation at all either.

Re:IAALS

[adolf]

That may cause problems if the fire department wants to get in in a hurry, for example if your house is on fire.

If the maximum level of security for a home is governed by a fireman's ability to break in, then we're done here. There's nothing left to discuss.