Smart locks and video doorbells are top-selling smart home devices. Following a late December Kickstarter campaign, Elecpro Group introduced the US:E smart lock at CES 2019 in two versions, one with 3D facial recognition and the other with fingerprint scanning.
Each version of the US:E smart lock has the same product name, an element that may change when the locks start shipping in May 2019. In the Kickstarter campaign, the lock that supports fingerprint scanning is referred to as the US:E Password Version, which is somewhat misleading because the US:E Facial Recognition Version also supports password access.
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Each lock can be locked or unlocked in six ways. In addition to their feature unlock methods — 3D facial recognition or fingerprint scanning — both versions can be opened with a key fob, a physical key, remote control via a smartphone app, or the built-in video camera.
According to Elecpro, the US:E smart lock has a zinc alloy body and a German B-grade lock cylinder. The company guarantees the lock can withstand at least 350,000 open and close cycles. The lock is also Builders Hardware Manufacturers Association (BHMA) certified and meets ANSI (American National Standards Institute) standards.
The 3D facial recognition system allows users to store up to 50 faces per lock. The video camera uses infrared multipoint 3D recognition which cannot be fooled by photos and videos, according to Elecpro. If your face is stored by the system with access rights, you can lock or unlock the door by pressing the 3D button and glancing at the camera.
With the US:E mobile app you can lock and locking the door with one tap. If someone else is at the door, you can turn on the video camera common to both lock version. If you want to give access via the phone app to someone at the door, regardless of whether you’re sitting on a chair inside the house or in a hotel room on the other side of the world, a single tap will let them in.
The fingerprint scanning version of the US:E smart lock saves up to 10 fingerprint IDs. Elecpro claims the military technology live fingerprint scanning and recognition module can give access to authorized people within 0.2 seconds.
Both smart lock versions support password access, with two special features. If someone enters the password incorrectly five times, the lock sends the homeowner a smartphone alert.
The lock password system also supports code scrambling. If you don’t want someone to watch you enter your PIN code you can confound observers but still gain access by adding random numbers before or after your code. For example, if your PIN code is “2468”, you could enter “47632468”, “24684637”, or “31224685468” and in case you would get in, but an observer, even one who knows about code scrambling would not be able to tell which were the correct four digits.
The Kickstarter campaign is still going on, with 36 more days left to take advantage of early bird or Kickstarter special prices. Pre-orders from the campaign, actually rewards for participating in funding the idea and development, are scheduled for May delivery. The list prices are $219 for the password (fingerprint scanning) version and $339 for the facial recognition lock. Reward prices for backers on the campaign at this time are $149 for the password version and $199 for the facial recognition lock.
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