Cellphones have already become the way many of us take photos, view mapping data and – soon – pay for purchases. Now the world’s biggest lock-maker wants to transform phones into access devices that open doors at homes, offices and campuses.
Arizona State University tested digital keys on several types of smartphones this fall.
Sweden’s Assa Abloy is testing software that acts as a digital key when loaded onto a smartphone. The software, which interacts with physical ID card readers via an application or by swiping it near a reader, could eventually replace the plastic badges that millions of people worldwide use to securely enter their offices and other facilities. It could also revamp the business of Assa Abloy and its California-based subsidiary, HID Global, which up to now has focused on mechanical and electro-mechanical products such as door locks and RFID tags.
Colleges are one potential market for the new keys, which essentially translate the identity information stored on traditional badges into portable, digital form. Arizona State University (ASU) recently completed a month-long trial of the technology with HID Global. Feedback from the 32 ASU participants was “pretty positive,” says Laura Ploughe, who oversees the university’s business applications, purchasing and electronic access systems.
Nearly all of the students and young staffers in the ASU study said they wished their phones could open doors across the school’s Tempe, Ariz. campus. A number of students not in the study asked to try out the technology.
Follow @2020tel
No comments:
Post a Comment