Locking and unlocking doors has become part of our daily lives, and just when keys seemed to be here to stay, two Stanford students proved us otherwise. Sesame is a smart lock that works with many types of deadbolts and relies on wireless connectivity to open doors.
Che-Ming Ku, a robotics student at Stanford, and Jongho Shin, a cybersecurity student at the same university, launched last month a crowdfunding campaign for their invention. Candy House Inc., as the startup created by these two geniuses is called, made a name for itself when the Kickstarter project raised north of $1.4M, more than 14 times the funding goal.
“Technology is changing so rapidly these days, and you’re likely to upgrade your phone every year,” explained Ku, “but you’re probably not going to change your lock every year because a new and improved digital lock is available. Sesame lets you upgrade your lock without any hassle.”
One of the main purposes of Candy House was to make the Sesame smart lock as simple and intuitive to use as possible. That easy that you could even provide access to friends, or restrict access for uninvited guests. Hackers are not an issue, as Sesame features AES 256-bit military-grade encryption. Using an additional Wi-Fi access point, users can connect Sesame to their local Wi-Fi network and open the door remotely, in case the situation requires it.
“With many of these types of devices, there’s a learning curve that gets in the way,” added Ku. “Sesame is extremely easy to install and works with almost any deadbolt.”
There are several ways users can unlock their door using Sesame and a smartphone. First of all, there’s a companion app for iOS and Android. Next, people can set Sesame to unlock the door when a secret knock is performed either on the phone or on the door. Of course, Sesame will use Bluetooth to check if the paired smartphone is nearby before opening the door to anyone who knows your custom knock. Not at last, users have to option to shoot up Google Now and say “OK, Google, open Sesame!” It really doesn’t get any easier than that!
Early birds could get Sesame for $89, or $139, respectively, with the Wi-Fi access point included. Now that the crowdfunding campaign is over, the price will go higher, when the smart lock will hit the shelves. The first batch of Sesame smart locks will get to Kickstarter backers as early as May.
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