An interesting Apple patent that makes me feel – ‘wow, this is something I so so need’. Imagine having a visitor at your door when you are just 5 mins away from home? or even better, being outside your own house without the keys and waiting for your spouse to return from the market for you to get inside? Well if Apple has its way, you would (atleast some point in the future) use your mobile phone to unlock doors. And some easy extension of this technology can enable you to offer access to guests (maybe limited or temporary).
Currently being referred as the iKey, this technology would give you freedom from carrying a bunch of keys and instead allow your mobile phone to unlock all doors including your car. iKey users would simply have to enter a
pin code and wave the device over an electronic pad fitted beside a door to unlock it.
Apple’s patent is based on NFC (near field communication) which allows electronic devices to transmit information between each other when in proximity. While the road to implementation of this technology is far, the challenge for Apple would be to get wide compatibility with other manufacturers already working on similar technology. For example some car makers are already doing away with keys and bringing in key fobs.
Via