New technologies are changing the way consumers interface with their homes, from how they watch TV through to how they unlock their doors. Here, Paul Skelton looks at how digital locks are changing the way people gain access to their houses.

Despite showing signs of improvement, the Australian building industry is still struggling. As a result, residential builders need to find new ways to generate income as well as stand out from the crowd.

One potential point of difference between you and your competition could be as simple as changing the locks you install on doors.

Specifically, new digital lock technologies blend traditional locksmith-ery with the latest in access control. The technology, while still in its infancy, provides builders with a simple up-sell proposition. Thanks to the introduction of iPads and iPhones, people are increasingly familiar with technology at home and are often actively seeking it out.

Offering a digital door lock is simply allowing you to fulfill your customer’s desires. The best thing is that installing these locks requires very little extra work to traditional mechanical lock sets.

In Australia, there are perhaps no companies more synonymous with door locks than Assa Abloy, in particular its Lockwood brand. In recent times, the company has released a digital version of its popular 001 door lock, the 001Touch Keyless Digital Deadlatch, as well as the Lockwood Digital Deadbolt.

“The mechanical 001 has a very large install base out in the market, so the 001Touch Keyless Digital Deadlatch offers a great upgrade path for builders. Alternatively, if their customers have mechanical deadbolts instead, the Lockwood Digital Deadbolt is the easiest path,” Assa Abloy business manager – product management Travis Thorn says.

“The best thing is that there’s no additional preparation required to install these locks. For the 001Touch Keyless Digital Deadlatch you simply need to drill an additional fixing hole above the case. Then you screw it on, program it and away you go. For the digital deadbolts, there is a 99% probability that you can simply retrofit the mechanical 54mm deadbolt lock.

“It’s pretty straightforward. It’s not something you would regard as technically difficult. It’s a process that would take a number of minutes.”

After 30 years in the market, the Lockwood 001 is now ready for inclusion in truly smart home design. The 001Touch Keyless Digital Deadlatch uses the same 001 deadlatch to secure the door internally; however, the external cylinder has been replaced with a sleek digital touch screen keypad.

The screen keypad, in both the 001Touch Keyless Digital Deadlatch and the Digital Deadbolt, lets owners use a 4-12 digit pin code or key card (001Touch Keyless Digital Deadlatch only) to access their properties.

“This market has started to grow and we’re expecting to see much more in the coming years,” Travis says.

“We’re currently dealing with a lot of builders, who typically have a mechanical offering because they’re trying to keep prices down. However, quite a few have a digital or electronic offering available as an upgrade for the consumer.

“But it’s still early days. In fact, I don’t think many consumers are asking for this technology yet because there’s a general lack of awareness out in the marketplace about digital lock technologies. That said, once consumers have seen the product and have used it, they are extremely happy with it. It’s like any new technology that you haven’t used or seen before; you don’t know what you’re missing out on.”

A FINGER’S TOUCH
While digital keypad locks are in place to be the natural successor to mechanical locks, a handful of manufacturers are spruiking biometric technologies as the way of the future.

Biometric locks are devices that use measurable, physical characteristics or behavioural traits to recognise the identity, or verify the claimed identity, of a person. These long-time staples of spy novels and movies include fingerprint and retina scans, voice analysis and facial recognition.

Until recently, though, biometric locks were considered unstable. This has now changed.

“Biometric door locks are very reliable,” says Kerry Hayman from Fingerprint Locks.

“A number of the products Fingerprint Locks sell have been manufactured since the early 1990s and have undergone a long path of software and hardware development.”

Kerry explains that, when it comes to biometric locks, installations vary between simple to quite complex.

“The majority of the locks are standalone and are self-powered. In the majority of cases they are able to be direct replacements to existing non-biometric locks. At the other end of the scale, particularly for commercial installations, some of the access control locks require external power and remote control of electric or mechanical strikes. In these cases there will be internal wall wiring required.

“That said, in Australia there is still some resistance to the technology. The main issue centres on the ‘stealing’ of peoples’ fingerprints. But, once a customer understands the lock does not store a user’s fingerprint, only an encrypted digital interpretation, it is easier for people to accept.
“As biometric use expands throughout the community there will be more acceptance. Sydney International Airport is now using facial recognition and laptops and phones are now introducing fingerprint technology. With more and more exposure day to day, people will realise the great benefits of fingerprint locks.”

For Travis, the biggest hurdle for the widespread adoption of ‘smart’ lock technology is that it currently isn’t considered a standard product offering.

“To drive growth we are currently working with local business partners to integrate smart locks into their automation platforms and focusing on targeted consumer marketing campaigns to increase product and brand awareness.”