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'Never Miss Another Delivery' - if You Have a TrackPIN (Video)
The company is called TrackPIN, as is the product. Its creator, Mark Hall, showed it off at CES. Timothy pointed his camcorder at Mark as he explained how his product would let you get package deliveries safely when you aren't home by giving the UPS or FedEx (or other) delivery person access to your garage, as well as letting in selected people like your maid, your plumber, and possibly an aquarium cleaner. Each one can have a private, one-time PIN number that will actuate your garage door opener through the (~$250) TrackPIN keypad and tell your smartphone or other net-connected device that your garage was just opened, and by whom. You might even call this, "One small step for package delivery; a giant leap forward for the Internet of Things." Except those of us who don't have garages (not to mention electric garage door openers) may want to skip today's video; the TrackPIN isn't meant for the likes of us. (Alternate Video Link)
I have been home when delivery services have claimed to have attempted delivery
There's no fix for incompetence
You'll still need to sign for your packages. UPS / FedEx leave packages on my doorstep already when I'm not home. This is alot like the MyQ system (Chamberlain & Liftmaster). You can open your garage door from your phone.
Joseph Elwell.
Two thoughts:
1) How do you get the one-time TrackPIN to the UPS guy before the fact?
2) Way back when the milkman delivered his eponymous product, there was a small "airlock" built into many houses, with doors open both to the outside and the in. Some sort of mechanism could be developed so as to deliver the package from the airlock to the house.
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
No need for the internet of things to do this. The standard garage door pad for the last 10 years allows both PINs that work N number of times or for N hours.
And you can put one of these keypads on nearly any garage door opener built since 1993!
The problem with this idea is that the UPS guy that comes by and throws your package at the stoop from 7 feet away is not going to take the time to enter a PIN, wait for the garage door to open, put the package in and then enter it again to close the garage door.
If you want packages put in your house securely while you're away you're going to need a drop box like a night depository. They might use that with enough hounding.
they have about a second to drop off a package unless it needs a signature. they aren't going to open and close your garage and their employer won't allow them to take on the liability of having the door left open
A paid advertisement disguised as a news story, this stuff matters.
Or a pet door or a cut-out door in the garage door. Works same way, can be locked without a key, but needs a key to open.
Far less complex, as reliable, and added bonus: The body you have hidden in the freezer in the garage would not be accidentally discovered by the deliveryman. (Note to self. Should cut down on watching Investigation Discovery shows.)
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Parcel Lockers as implemented by Australia Post seem like a more practical option. They're sort of like post office boxes but your parcel is placed in any one of the lockers and you're sent a one-time PIN number to unlock the particular locker your parcel is in.
If they have an electric garage door opener, chances are someone can already get in withou this and with having to crack it. Most often all you need is a coat hanger or two.
Yes, I'd feel better if this was not about opening a garage, but was used to open something like a drop box where it isn't part of your house, and the package is still safe.
Of course, you could just invent a dead drop box for this too.
I don't think letting people into my garage is a good idea.
1) You could use the last 4 digits of the package tracking number as the delivery driver's PIN, and tell him or her what to do in a note stuck to your front door.
I think they need to have a Capcha as well so the delivery person can prove he's a human not an autonomous drone. Make him do a mathc problem to compute the number.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
i won't need to hire movers if i get the right delivery guy
Remember kids, if you're not paying for the service, YOU ARE THE PRODUCT THAT IS BEING SOLD.
Where the government is phasing out home mail delivery in favour of "Community Mailboxes"... so now I have to go to the big box in order to collect my frequent junk-mail and occasional important stuff.
Probably a lot of responses will say that the delivery guy never comes up to the door, and probably a lot of them are right, but whatever helps. Some local friends had problems with delivery people knocking too quietly, maybe intentionally, who knows. They put up a sign on their door saying "Knock like this door is everyone who ever wronged you", and suddenly delivery people actually make noise! The novelty factor probably helps more than anything else.
Seriously, with stuff like this, the whole "Internet of Things," and whatnot, I feel like it's every day that I see some new product or service blaring about how awesome and convenient it is. Except we're at the point, in our relatively advanced and spoiled society, where there is very little that is so damned inconvenient that it requires a tech-based solution. "Convenience saturation" or something like that.
Oh, and if Slashdot is going to be advertising shit, at least advertise breakthrough products. This is a "meh" at best on the "gobsmacking tech inventions" scale.
One time is all that's needed for someone's friend to stay behind and clean out your house.
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
Sorry, Schalage already ate all the the cheese dip.
http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UT...
In addition to the Z-Wave solutions (coupled with iVera for mobile access / refined control including locking and unlocking your door from anywhere) there are tons of existing WiFi, programmable and god why do I still comment on slashdot seriously I'm typing and I can't muster any more smug I'll probably run out of steam midsente..
- Holy crap, I've got MOD points! Who thought that was a good idea.
Really? This needs to be said?
For people that live in an urban environment - you have this thing called NEIGHBORS. I bet you $100 there is a stay at home person within 2 blocks of anyone living in a city. Befriend them. Be nice to them. Chances are they are bored. It's the ethical thing to do. They will gladly accept your package.
For people that live in a rural environment. Leave it on the back porch. If you don't have a neighbor to receive it, then that means likely there is no one to steal it.
Isn't that person going to get tired of accepting packages for every neighbor in a 2 block radios?
I get so many packages from Amazon that i wouldn't even as a friend to accept them all, let alone a neighbor down the block. What happens with this friendly neighbor when UPS says she signed for 3 packages, but she only gives you two, and your $600 iPhone is the one that's missing. Now you're out $600 because UPS has a signed delivery receipt.
My next door neighbor does work from home, but she usually doesn't bother to accept her own packages (they leave them on her front porch) because she's *working*.
I'm waiting to be able to get a drone shipped to my house that will fly into my living room with a 3D printer to build the item I ordered online.
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Basically the big innovation here is just parsing the email to set the code automatically. But as a result you have worse security, because the PIN is only 3 digits (always ends #), and it's the tracking number so the sender knows it as well. If I want to break into your house, I just send you some UPS package and then use the last three digits of the tracking number to get in.
Some guy is showing off 3-D printed cars at the Detroit Auto Show this year.