Will the Smartphone Take Access Control To a New Level

June 2, 2014
The future of access control begins before reaching for the front door.

Smartphones applications in commercial, institutional and residential settings include identification badge, credit card and/or a key. Commercial lock and access control hardware manufacturers are taking advantage of smartphone technology to control access at colleges and universities. For these applications, smartphone access begins at the door or inside a building.

Starting June 2nd, a potential future direction for the "smart home" will be presented at the Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference. The news media has presented some of the pre-conference discussions ranging from a remote for your entire house to a bunch of devices cobbled together over Wi-Fi.

For me, one important technological aspect that has hopefully been thought of is communication with the residence beginning prior to the person or vehicle entering the property, not waiting until the "entry" door. If this is evenly summarily discussed, it will be an important step towards a new level of controlling access.

The future of access control is knowing exactly where each person is at any moment. For this to become reality, a way to identify each and every person must occur before attempting entry.

Hopefully, the new "smart home" technology will extend access control to at least the property line.

As always, your thoughts would be appreciated.