[hinalea]

Here's a good cottage industry for you:

The keyless entry system is so useful, all we need are door locks/computer security logins/etc. tied in to our Prius dongle. Walk up, you're recognized. Save us carrying a ring of keys, eh?

 

[Behmon]

Here's a good cottage industry for you:

The keyless entry system is so useful, all we need are door locks/computer security logins/etc. tied in to our Prius dongle. Walk up, you're recognized. Save us carrying a ring of keys, eh?

The HomeLink will already do this, provided you purchase a compatible electronic door lock for your home. Press a button on your HomeLink mirror and PRESTO, your home unlocks. This is especially useful when you have packages to carry in.

 

[hinalea]

Where can you find Homelink details?

Thanks for the tip. Where can one find details (a manual in PDF form, say) on Homelink and compatible systems?

 

[hinalea]

Looked up Homelink. Nice,but not Prius keyless quite...

Google makes all easy, looked it up myself. Homelink is slick, and on the market now. Very capable at what it does.

What I was talking about was having a variety of systems that activated based on the proximity of the keyless Prius dongle in your pocket/purse. These will be available soon in credit cards, etc. but they'll all be different and incompatible systems.

I would like to have my computer, for example, 'unlock' and come out of standby when the Prius dongle in my pocket approached. Perhaps have the light in the room go on, that sort of thing. A silly wish unlikely to be fulfilled.

 

[D U I]

Certainly you are aware that Toyota manufactures prefab homes in Japan, quite stylish little houses actually, where Smart Entry is integrated?

Subdermal implant for me! Gotta shrink that fob.

 

[hinalea]

We've got this backwards

A friend of mine, high up at Microsoft, told me the technology in the Prius key will be everywhere eventually, credit cards, etc., it's already being used in animal ID implants.

He says the way it should work is that we each have our own personal, secure ID device, and the Prius (as well as our laptop, etc.) polls it when we approach, and lets us in.

It's nice of Toyota to give us a taste of this right now, anyway.

 

[mcbrunnhilde]

The HomeLink will already do this, provided you purchase a compatible electronic door lock for your home. Press a button on your HomeLink mirror and PRESTO, your home unlocks. This is especially useful when you have packages to carry in.

I guess I didn't remember until reading this thread that people actually DO have to unlock the door to their house. Maybe it's more of a west coast thing (or Southern Calif. thing) that almost all homes have attached garages. I never lock the door that leads into my house from the garage, since you can't access the garage without the opener. I never could understand why ANYONE would build a new home with a separate garage. Who the heck wants to get rained or snowed on when you walk to the house or garage?!?

 

[whatshisname]

Attached Garages? Not always wise. Check insurance statistics. Garages are notorious for disasters. Fires often start there. Explosions too. If an attached garage goes, you can bet the house goes with it.

Still waiting.

 

[AronRubin]

Proximity access has become very popular for higher security office buildings like the one I work at. There is a home model for the controller:

http://www.smarthome.com/7434.html

You will have to figure out what you want to do for the door strike. The issue being fail-safe locks require you to not use your deadbolt (the bolt must be beveled and spring loaded), and the fail-open models are circumvented by power outage (and have a shorter MTTF). If you want to pay big bucks you can get thumb or retinal scanning models but that won't help you with groceries.

Aron

 

[hinalea]

remote access

Smarthome looks interesting, and just as I was describing. However, it must use its own dongle, not the Toyota key, unfortunately. My quixotic desire is just one device. I have too many remote controls in my life already for comfort.

Call it the 'voluntary simplicity through complexity' hopeless dream.

As someones signature line says, "The wonderful thing about standards is that there are so many to choose from"

 

[donatello3000]

Attached Garages and SmartCards

Regarding the dangers of garages attached to homes... When I was little, I was always scared of that flame in the heater back there. But for the past 21 years of my life, my house hasn't burned down because of any accidents in my garage. I think that it's safe as long as you maintain it well and keep it clean.
The chances of getting rained on while walking from the garage to the house are far greater than the house catching fire or exploding (not saying that it rarely happens... I have never seen the insurance statistics).
I think it would be creepy to walk from the garage to the house. I like the fact that once I pull into my garage, I can close the garage door behind me with the push of a button and not worry about the weather or other outdoor mishaps.

At school we have a lock system similar to SmartHome's. Instead of keyfobs, we have SmartCards. They're the same size and thickness as a credit card, and they double as our ID cards. To get in the buiding all I have to do is pull my card from my retractable lanyard (I clip it to my pocket) and wave it in front of the security panel. It beeps to let me know it's been unlocked. They program certain rooms to only let people with a certain ID card in, as well. What's better about this compared to that system at SmartHome is that while the cards are wider than the keyfobs, they are flatter. Some people keep their SmartCards in their wallets so that they can keep everything in one place. They wave their wallets in front of the panel and get into the building. Of course, if you're carrying groceries into the home, it would be a pain for those of you who keep your wallets in your back pockets.

 

[whatshisname]

When I threw into the pile the fact that insurance statistics make clear that attached garage fires are more disastrous because they usually involve the entire structure I wasn't trying to persuade anyone to change his or her form of residence. As a matter of fact my current home for 35 years has an attached garage. :wink: Most of the homes in my area have had no fires since I can remember. Now that I think about it, perhaps we should close some of our fire houses and retire the personnel.

 

[donatello3000]

Yeah... though in my area, I think we should keep them. The SoCal wildfires from a few months ago were very close to my neighborhood. I could see the fire coming down the mountain toward us. Luckily they started a backfire and it worked. We didn't have to evacuate, though we did pack just in case.

Back to the keyless thing...

Today was the first day of the new school quarter. Waving my ID card to unlock the doors reminded me of the new Prius that I will have some day. After my first class, I walked back to my car and was disappointed that I had to search for my keys. =( That and the fact that my air conditioner is broken and it's hot and sunny outside made me want an electric powered air conditioner.

 

[whatshisname]

Oh yes. I have friends living in So. Calif. and the Internet pictures they sent me displaying the fires as they approached were plenty scary. Let's keep the fire fighters on the job and be sure to thank them for their efforts and bravery.

Keyless entry? Let me tell you something amusing about remotes and gadgets. I once worked as an electro/technician in a research and development laboratory many years ago. I had access to a great assortment of material and gadgetry thrown away after experiments. I applied the stuff to all kinds of inventions and inovations around my home. I had automatic lawn sprinklers before anyone else. I had electrically operated draperies, lights that came on and went off with vocal commands, recordings of dogs barking when people approached in the wee hours. Visitors were always amused and envious. Then one day I realized I was always fixing things and sometimes even losing sleep trying to solve problems. Now, everything is fine again. I got rid of it all. I turn on the lights like everyone else and fumble for keys and things as I always had to do for most of my life. Fortunately or unfortunately it looks like I'm hooked again becauseI'm wondering how much sleep I'm going to lose when things start going wrong with the Prius.

 

[veggivet]

Sometimes less is more.

 

[hinalea]

less is less

But more often, less is...less

How did detached garages make it into this thread? Unless...

 

[hinalea]

Living light

My, do conversations diverge! It's like playing the kids game 'telephone'.

My original intent in posting was to make the case for a 'one key' life. Know the old saying "How important you are is not measured by how many keys you have, but by the ratio of doors opened/number of keys"? As it is, I have to carry around more keys than I like, and maintain a password notebook for the ballooning number of computer/bank/etc. login names and passwords.

It would be nice to live in a world where we could leave our cars and homes and computers unlocked. I grew up in such a world, but in urban America (and even now where I grew up) that is not practical.

So I'd rather have a way of accessing all these things without having to carry a suitcase of keys and passwords with me. The Prius keyless entry is great, and moves in that direction, but unless it opens other things as well, it is just another device, bigger than a key in fact, that I must carry about to gain access to one of my possessions.

Which takes me back to a post I made in the technical section: I wish Toyota or someone else made a tiny, key-size max version that simply did the electronic ID part without the metal key or buttons. I'd be willing to take my chances on being without the other functions in everyday life.