Smart Door Locks with Facial Recognition

Smart home technology is booming—offering new ways to make your home more comfortable and secure, with innovations emerging over the past few years.

You may have heard of smart thermostats, but they are just the tip of the iceberg. Smart devices can also help you with your daily tasks, your shopping, your lighting, and your security. The best part is that they can work together to simplify and protect your life.

One of the hottest trends in smart home security is smart door locks. Not just ordinary locks, smart locks can include keyed or keyless door lock systems that can be controlled using an access code or an app connected to your home security system. Some advancements have been made towards including facial recognition features. That means you may soon be able to unlock your door with just your face. The product feature that makes this possible is biometrics, a rapidly developing technology.

The most significant investments in these capabilities can be traced back to 2016, after which many applications and refinements have been developed. Still, these technologies may have some drawbacks that have not been perfected yet.

Face Recognition Tech for Door Locks

As far back as 2016, manufacturers started talking about smart locks with face recognition. The buzz has continued to grow as mainstream tech devices incorporate facial recognition, like the iPhone® X which was released in 2017.

Some smart door locks in the generation that followed used facial recognition, leveraging advanced analytics to identify a person’s face at the door. Lock technology, such as the FL1000 from ZKTeco, has been designed to allow homeowners to unlock their doors with nothing but a smile.

The FL1000 from ZKTeco uses dual cameras that boast the ability to recognize faces within 0.2 seconds. Within the application, you can register up to 100 faces and manage their ability to control the locking mechanism within the door. There are also other ways to lock the smart door, including a key fob and code.

Another model, the Corum Security CS-100, is promised to have a lock that can’t be fooled by images or models. A code, fob, and mechanical key are also available on the locking mechanism. Infrared technology ensures the smart door lock even works in dim and dark conditions.

Elecpro came to market with another option, the US:E Smart Lock. The US:E features facial recognition, fingerprint scanning, smart phone access, code-based entry, and key fob entry, as well as uses a physical key. Elecpro claims that the lock can recognize up to 100 faces and cannot be fooled by pictures and video.

With home security being more crucial than ever, the use of machine learning and IoT technologies that support facial recognition has provided a novel to support additional protection to one’s property.

Future of Smart Door Locks

In the summer of 2017, the International Journal of Engineering Trends and Applications published a research article on the future of facial recognition door locks using Microsoft Face API. Future work in the field included the following:

• If a blacklisted person attempts to open a smart door lock, the system will send an emergency alert to the registered user’s home or to the business’s owner.

• Eventually, facial recognition technology will be able to differentiate between friends and strangers. Alerts can be sent directly to the account owner to let them know someone they don’t know is at the door.

• A voice assistant can be added to smart door locks to improve the overall user experience.

• A cloud-based database can be utilized to store the video footage of those who are at the door.

• Transport layer security can add extra security to smart door locks that include facial recognition features.

Some concerns around the proliferation of facial recognition data have slowed the spread of facial recognition technology in smart home devices. With companies facing backlash over mining social media for facial recognition data, there is mounting concern about how companies might use this data in the future.

As of 2024, advancements in the capabilities of facial recognition technology still seems to be ahead of the laws and regulations required to adequately protect the privacy and civil liberties of these devices used in publicly accessible places.

Drawbacks of Smart Door Locks with Face Recognition

A few problems can occur with smart door locks that include facial recognition. For one, accuracy has yet to be at 100 percent. Due to this issue, there absolutely needs to be a backup method to enter the home. Fortunately, most of the locks available to do have alternative means of operation. So, if the facial recognition feature isn’t working properly, the lock should still function.

Other drawbacks may arise from facial recognition technology in general. One concern involves the permanence of your facial recognition data. You can change a password if you have a problem, you cannot change your face. Privacy, as mentioned earlier, is also a concern with facial recognition technology. There’s evidence that some companies are being unethical in collecting and selling facial recognition data.

Interested in a Smart Home Security System?

While this technology is promising, there is still a way to go before it becomes common in our neighborhoods, and the rate of these technologies being adopted depend on public trust and personal preference. Although smart locks with facial recognition are not yet being offered, we are available to discuss the benefits of current smart locks. For the time being, pairing smart locks with a video doorbell that uses analytics will provide you with roughly the same advantages and level of security for you and your home. Don’t hesitate to contact us today at Brinks Home­™, and speak with a Security Consultant that can help you choose which security system and security devices are right for you.