PSIJuly2018

PANEL
“I suspect it will be
many years before all
that smartphone
technology will be
used to actually
secure the homes of
the smartphone
owners”
(from previous page)
24
Because of the pace of change of technology,
to stay at the forefront you must innovate to
stay relevant. In the next five years we expect to
see the identification of people and the
movement of people around a building to
change from using tokens to a move towards the
use of smart credentials especially with the
increasing popularity of wearable technology as
a means of identification.
Dave Mundy – Delta
Security
Many would say that the locks
of the future are already here
but I think this statement
needs some qualification
because it’s very common to
confuse ‘locks’ and ‘keys’.
A ‘lock’ is a piece of hardware, sufficiently
strong to carry out a specific task. The ‘key’ is
the means of operating the lock.
Keys can now be very sophisticated indeed.
Fobs and swipe cards are comparatively ‘old’
technologies, while biometric iris scanning,
facial recognition and fingerprint scanning are
widely in use worldwide and are proving very
effective. Smartphones, commonly controlling
our heating and lighting, can also be used to
provide access to our properties for our own
convenience and that of others. This is likely to
be a very popular choice when choices need to
be made. No need to wait in for the plumber or
builder – just send the ‘key’ directly to their
phone and delete it after use.
There are many different choices available
when it comes to choosing the key, i.e the way
you open your lock. But what about the lock
itself?
Consider the number of different locks that
are required worldwide, and what’s expected of
them. At the very least they need to safeguard
privacy or property. A bank would require more
security than a garden shed and the offices of
MI5 more privacy than an estate agent. On a
residential property, the lock for the front or
back door will need to be more secure that the
lock on your bedroom (depending, of course, on
what you might keep in there!). A padlock on a
factory gate would be more robust than you
would have on a chicken coop. The sheer
magnitude of choice and possibilities boggles
the imagination.
And it’s the locks where the technology is
lagging behind. There are already options of
course, and some of them, such as
electromagnets and all-in-one knobs and
handles have long proven their worth in many
lightweight applications.
But where are the alternatives to the
affordable and reliable locks that we are so
familiar with? I suspect it will be many years
before all that smartphone technology will be
used to actually secure the homes of the
smartphone owners.
I can already hear the scornful snorts of
innovative manufacturers and I look forward to the
day when my clients are persuaded that they need
to change. For now, I don’t think we’re quite there.
www.psimagazine.co.uk