The use of personal physical features for identification and entry is called biometrics, and it's not new. Biometrics has been used in high-level government and military security systems for years.
But at $200 for a SmartScan lockset, it opens the way for ordinary homeowners to benefit from the technology in a form that looks like an ordinary deadbolt lock. It even installs into the same holes used now by existing door hardware.
The SmartScan incorporates a weatherproof shroud that extends below the bottom side of the lock body. This houses an optical reader that registers and recognizes individual fingerprints for entry access. If the system knows you, a finger swipe retracts the deadbolt. If it doesn't, nothing happens.
It all sounds great, and it certainly looks cool, too. But how does it actually work in the real world? That's what I set out to discover with a SmartScan mounted on a simulated door panel in my kitchen, in a world full of kids, hustle and dirty fingers.
You need to start by registering fingerprints to be recognized by the lock, and for this, you pop off a cover on the inside face of the door. A touchpad just below the four AA system batteries (they're supposed to last a year) takes you through various phases of registration. Three swipes of a finger are required for the job. I found the system sometimes picky, even when tweaked to the most casual level of sensitivity.
Expect to try several attempts at registration before the system approves. The instruction manual offers the rather gruesome but prudent suggestion that you register two fingers for each person, just in case one digit gets inadvertently removed and you need to get inside in a hurry.
My first attempts at opening the lock with my registered fingers proved hit-and-miss until I realized something important: You need to wake the system up with a touch of your finger first, before swiping. Wake-up triggers a light on top of the lock body and takes just half a second.
Weiser's SmartScan is available at most major hardware stores.
Steve Maxwell is technical editor of Canadian Home Workshop magazine. Send homebuilding and renovation questions to www.stevemaxwell.ca.
-- Canwest News Service
