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Apple

Apple Reportedly Plans a Doorbell That Unlocks Your Door With Face ID (engadget.com) 58

Posted by EditorDavid from the familiar-faces dept.
Engadget reports: Apple is developing a smart doorbell and lock system that would use Face ID to unlock the door for known residents, Mark Gurman reports in the Power On newsletter. The face-scanning doorbell would connect to a smart deadbolt, which could include existing HomeKit-compatible third-party locks, according to Gurman. Or, Apple may "[team] up with a specific lock maker to offer a complete system on day one."
The Power On newsletter also reports that Apple is testing "health" features like heart rate monitoring and temperature sensing for its AirPods Pro earbuds...
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Apple Reportedly Plans a Doorbell That Unlocks Your Door With Face ID More

Apple Reportedly Plans a Doorbell That Unlocks Your Door With Face ID

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  • Are they nuts? (Score:1, Interesting)

    by J. L. Tympanum ( 39265 )

    What could possibly go wrong with this ridiculous scheme?

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by hwstar ( 35834 )

      I don't know if this is any better than what we are currently installing on household entry doors.

      The locks on most homes are (At least in the United States) junk. They're all built to the lowest cost possible, have crappy tolerances, and use Zinc instead of Brass for most of the moving parts. The doors they are used on are not much better.

      If you want reasonable security, you have to use commercial grade doors and grade 1 locks. Usually only the well-to-do can afford to install this type of hardware.

      • Re:Are they nuts? (Score:4, Insightful)

        by silentbozo ( 542534 ) on Sunday December 22, 2024 @04:04PM (#65033117) Journal

        And better walls...

        https://www.fsstechnologies.co... [fsstechnologies.com]

        "Criminals have also been known to knock a hole through plastic siding and drywall and squeeze in between a set of studs."

      • The locks on most homes are (At least in the United States) junk. They're all built to the lowest cost possible, have crappy tolerances, and use Zinc instead of Brass for most of the moving parts.

        It won't be fundamentally different from what you'll find anywhere else.

        The doors they are used on are not much better.

        I don't believe there's any country you can point to and say "see, nobody robs the houses there because all of the doors and deadbolts they use are highly resistant to being kicked open."

        The locks that the masses use today are no worse than what you'd find in the past, arguably better in many respects, though they do come in different grades. Which grade you should use depends on how much security you need. You probably don't need an AN

      • The locks on most homes are (At least in the United States) junk. They're all built to the lowest cost possible, have crappy tolerances, and use Zinc instead of Brass for most of the moving parts. The doors they are used on are not much better.

        Back in 2007 I had to live in an apartment in Ohio. The apartment was actually well priced and nice, in a suburb of Toledo. Anyway, three years later when I'm moving out, the exodus was quite hectic. After I got (I thought) everything out, I dropped my keys in the key return bin at the office (it was a Sunday), and left. Almost as soon as I did, I realized that I left a load of clothes in the drier.

        Now, I could have gone back and called the property manager or maintenance man to go let me in, but I was on

      • Europe is how things are done right... (Score:5, Interesting)

        by ctilsie242 ( 4841247 ) on Sunday December 22, 2024 @06:31PM (#65033435)

        The mind-boggling thing is how common burglaries and home invasions are in the US, while at best, the hardware is either garbage or one step from that. Even the higher end deadbolts and door knob locks are still, at best, symbolic when it comes to a kick-in.

        In Europe, security isn't just the awesome interchangeable cylinders, but multi-point locking in the doors, or even just mortise locks... Mortise locks used to be standard in the US, lasted forever, and had a lot more area to handle the force of a kick-in, but isn't really present.

        US doors are also not up to any real security standards. A good kick can just get rid of the jamb and frame in most houses or apartments. In the past, people had security screen doors, but HOAs and code banned them because it made the area look "rough".

        Then you look at the locks themselves. Five pin with no security spools is the standard here. This means that anyone who has seen a basic video can bump or otherwise use a low-effort attack to get in. A lot of homes use Kwikset Smartkey locks, which are actually resistant to picking... but in my experience, all the Kwikset Smartkey locks I've used have ended up failing in some manner after 1-2 years. You can step up to Abloy or Medeco, but those are relatively rare, as opposed to the UK or Europe where you can go to a Poundland or similar and get an Evva MCS, PROTEC 2, or BiLock, and have excellent pick resistance. In the US, even a basic five lever mechanism from the UK would be a lot more secure than the junk sold now.

        Even not on the doors, US locks are made to look beefy, mainly to deter tweakers from physical attacks. Most are not going to survive any picking attacks. Bike locks have gone back to round keys in some cases. Part of this is because in general, European criminals have some brains, and crazed addicts are not really a common issue, while in the US, you get zombies with pry bars trying to pull stuff apart for their next fix, almost everywhere.

        For basic security, I've had to go with special ordering a stronger jamb and door frame, going with mortise locks and steel doors. Mortise locks also add a touch of class.

        As for automatically unlocking locks... no thanks. I'd want something that has a one-way clutch so I can lock stuff via remote, but for unlocking, I want a manual key to be doing that work, so someone has to be physically there.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by leiz ( 35205 )

          How have Kwikset Smartkey locks failed in your experience? They seem to work fine here. I have seen old ones where the paint eventually peels off, but the mechanical parts work fine.

          Also, all the energy spent on upgrading the door does not help if the burglar is just going to break a window.

          • In my experience, after a few years, the lock starts becoming problematic when the key is turned, then eventually stops working. I'm assuming this is due to wear. However, Gen 3 of the SmartKey format has excellent pick resistance, especially for the price point. Lock-wise, my preference is just going with plain old Medeco 4. Yes, LPL tier people can pick them, but it raises the bar where low-level attacks like bumping are not going to be feasible.

            That is true about breaking a window. However it is abo

  • solution in search of a problem (Score:3, Insightful)

    by sdinfoserv ( 1793266 ) on Sunday December 22, 2024 @03:16PM (#65033009)
    And exactly who is asking for this?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by hwstar ( 35834 )

      The guy who looks for esoteric things who wants to impress his friends, and neighbors.

    • Re:solution in search of a problem (Score:4, Insightful)

      by dfghjk ( 711126 ) on Sunday December 22, 2024 @03:49PM (#65033081)

      A company that hasn't had a successful idea in decades that they didn't buy from another company.

      • I'd argue that designing their own SoCs and CPU cores has been an incredibly successful idea for Apple, even if they don't sell them directly. Having leading class performance across many product lines as a result of this has elevated their products considerably.

        Beyond that, I don't think they need a huge hit every year. Most companies only have one thing that they ever do incredibly well if they manage to be successful at all. Having more than one per decade or two is practically unheard of. They can't

        • I don't think there's anything you can point to that they actually did on their own in the last decade. It's always something they've somehow acquired from somebody else, even if they didn't acquire the company. They tried (and failed) to blatantly steal a newer method of pulse oximetry from another company. Happened earlier this year and almost resulted in the apple watch being banned in the US. The Obama admin wasn't around this time to veto it like when they stole other technology from Samsung, so they u

    • Who is asking for this? Apple itself is asking for this. Their servers will have a photograph of everyone who visits your house. I'm sure police authorities will enjoy having this information, too.

  • Until (Score:5, Funny)

    by ukoda ( 537183 ) on Sunday December 22, 2024 @03:23PM (#65033015) Homepage
    People will love it, until the first time their credit card expires and they can no longer get into their house.
    • I honestly wish this were a joke but its going to happen.
    • Next plan coming soon, iLavatory, including toilet papers, can be unlocked with Rectum ID. Just wait for Apple Ceo's saying you're wiping it wrong.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      People will love it, until the first time their credit card expires and they can no longer get into their house.

      Why? At what thing in the Apple ecosystem has there been a subscription on such things?

      The camera will be designed by Apple, so it'll likely use HomeKit. And all HomeKit devices must work offline, with no connection to the Internet.

      It's one of the reasons why the Apple HomeKit stuff is hard to get - because people don't want to make it offline-only. The only way to add Internet access is through a

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by ukoda ( 537183 )
        You may be right, but we have to wait and see.

        My experience with Apple is very dated, so maybe they are not a walled garden making large profits any more. I did have an iPod, but I couldn't get MP3 files off it when I wanted to transfer my music another player. It was retired. I had an iPhone, it was three months before use it in my country, with a special SIM shim. Jail breaking it to install apps was a pain, I replaced it a Nexus One. I had an Apple TV, it refused to play local media until created

      • Yeah just had some experience with a home kit device. Was very happy (despite having no apple gear, used it without Apple). Formerly I had to stick to zwave or zigbee to have confidence that it would work all local (open garage being an exception), but now homekit is on the list.

        Also like you said, I had to actually go for an older model because the manufacturers latest version removed homekit support. Seemingly because they started charging a subscription fee and homekit breaks their guarantee that a sub

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Or the cloud is down and their doorbell doesn't alert them to people ringing it.

      Delivery people hate smart doorbells anyway. Users hate that notifications often take tens of seconds to arrive.

      • You know, you could rag on Apple for their actual flaws (like facial recognition being easy to fool), instead of making up stuff about flaws FaceID does not have.

        FaceID runs from a Secure Enclave chip - the face recognition data is never uploaded, the cloud is not involved in recognition, no credit card account used.

        FaceID works fine for me as a quick phone unlocker, but I would not use it for my front door - I need to unlock my door even if I'm wearing a scarf, or a face mask.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          No not face ID, how does the signal that the bell was pressed or the ID was made get from the device to your phone? It bounces via the cloud.

          Bluetooth range isn't good enough. WiFi might be segmented or not support broadcasts. Phone is probably half asleep to save power anyway.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Calydor ( 739835 )

      Or until something happens to their face - maybe they get in a fight and have a big bruise, or they have an infected tooth causing visible swelling of the cheek, or they have eye surgery and need to have one eye covered by a massive bandage for weeks, or ...

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by diodeus ( 96408 )

      Until you forgot to shave, try to open the door three times, get locked out and need to make an appointment at the "genius bar" in two weeks just to go home.

  • Next up: Jabba the Hutt Gatekeepr Droid (Score:3)

    by hwstar ( 35834 ) on Sunday December 22, 2024 @03:39PM (#65033059)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQgM8gLE5DQ

  • ... use Face ID to unlock the door ...

    We don't talk about facial recognition being a security down-grade. It's not so bad for phones, where many apps (Google Wallet excepted) require a second authentication. This is great for disabled/elderly people and probably useful in low-crime suburbs with few intersections. But if your town suffers an economic down-turn (Eg. factory closing), that low-security door-lock becomes a risk.

  • How do you prevent them from entering your house and stealing all your stuff?
  • Or better put, fuck no.

  • When are they going to learn? (Score:3)

    by RUs1729 ( 10049396 ) on Sunday December 22, 2024 @08:03PM (#65033561)
    Biometrics are, at best, equivalent to a username. What they are proposing is equivalent to login into your system just supplying your username. Worse, because your face can change a lot, depending on time and circumstances.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Calydor ( 739835 )

      Oh yeah, no suddenly deciding you want to grow a beard or shave one off, or switch from glasses to contacts or vice versa ...

  • When you update Android, you'll have to sign back in using your password, not your fingerprint. Google obviously trusts their fingerprint scanner less than what's probably a cruddy four-digit PIN. Biometrics is not security. It's a gimmick.

  • The first time I saw Face ID on a phone I took a picture of my friend framed about the same way and then pointed the picture at his locked iphone and it unlocked just fine. I am told it now uses IR and other unstated functions to be more secure, but I haven trusted any face ID on any device so far, and neither has my friend.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by larkost ( 79011 )

      Apple's FaceID has always used an IR dots system to get a 3d map of the face. So a flat picture has never worked to fool it.

      There are a number of implementations on Windows and Android that use a standard or IR flat-camera with no dots system, so those could be fooled by flat pictures.

      So I think you probably saw one of those other systems, not an iPhone an FaceID.

  • the sun don't shine..

    Seriously though, can't they just stop with this crap. Stuff is unreliable at the best of times.

  • Good luck getting your insurance to pay out if your house is ever robbed when using such a lock. If there's no sign of forced entry they're just going to say that you must not have property secured the door: claim denied.

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