Multicolored Keyless Entry System

mollyhackit writes "Here's a how-to guide for building a keyless entry that uses color identification instead of numbers. All eight buttons are initially blue; as you press the individual buttons they change color. Cycle the colors to your particular pattern, and you're in. This lock obviously wasn't designed for high security use since anyone in the same room would be able to see you and your amazing technicolor dream lock's pattern; it's just a fun project and will keep the youngins out of your workshop (timer prevents brute forcing). The RGB buttons are monome clones from hobby shop Sparkfun."

Useful tool

[VincenzoRomano (881055)]

to make jokes to your color-blind friend: replace his front door lock!

Re:Useful tool

[dk.r*nger (460754)]

I would be equally "fun" to replace non-color-blind peoples front door locks.

Re:Useful tool

[by Anonymous Coward]

I'm fully colorblind, that's right, black and white. Color coding a lock is no big deal, just get the master key. I think a ten pound sledge would do.

Re:

[J'ai Friedpork (1293672)]

Then don't buy those products. It's unreasonable to expect 90% of us to avoid using a technology because the remaining 10% can't. (Or, put another way, if I make something for myself, don't get worked up if you're different enough from me that it doesn't work for you as well.)

Re:

[WK2 (1072560)]

It's not like manufacturers advertise the "Must have full range of color vision" for their products. That's one of the reasons I buy stuff at places with a good return policy.

Disclaimer: I am not color-blind, but I have bought worthless crap that had to be returned.

Amusing, but a problem for one in ten men?

[SlashTon (871960)]

It's a fun project and a cool toy, but I hope it would never see serious application.

Considering that between 7% and 10% of men are red-green color blind (other types of color blindness at a few percentage points). This kind of lock could pose serious problems for a significant part of the population.

"What? You set the password to the garage door to Red Green Green Red? Guess I'm walking to work again..."

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorblindness [wikipedia.org]

Re:

[RuBLed (995686)]

Easy solution: match each color change with an audio alert.

Harder solution: Finger electrocution based on the binary equivalent of the color.

An audio lock? Perhaps not a good idea.

[Viol8 (599362)]

It might be rather a giveaway to anyone in a 20 foot radius unless you cover the thing with a duvet when pushing the buttons!

Re:

[severoon (536737)]

Easier solution...don't use both green and red, just choose one. (Same goes for yellow and blue, the other kind of color blindness.) Or, go ahead and use both, but put a black dot in the center of red and blue.

Besides, this isn't really a problem after all. They can make colors look red and green to us normal people but still make them easily distinguishable, though not by hue, to color blind people. That's why there aren't more accidents at intersections controlled by (red and green) stoplights, even th

Re:Amusing, but a problem for one in ten men?

[SQLGuru (980662)]

The traffic lights have the benefit of fixed positioning. The red (or shade of grey, whichever you see) is ALWAYS at the top or left. With the lock created, the colors move, so you need to make sure that the intensity of the color is different so that you see light grey / dark grey or what have you.

Layne

Re:

[Petersson (636253)]

Easy solution: match each color change with an audio alert.

Any suggestions for my colourblind + tonedeaf friends?

Re:

[SQLGuru (980662)]

Don't make it tones but sounds....I can just hear the See and Say voice now.

The button goes...MOOOO
The button goes...BAAAA

Even still, I'm pretty tone def and I can at least tell escalating pitch even if I can't match it vocally. As long as the colors and the pitches correspond, they should be ok.

Layne

Re:Amusing, but a problem for one in ten men?

[Chapter80 (926879)]

This kind of lock could pose serious problems for a significant part of the population.

Isn't that the idea of a lock? To make it difficult for OTHER PEOPLE to gain access?

Another note: The way this is currently designed, as was mentioned in TFA, others could see and memorize your secret pattern. But I think it'd be trivial to change it so that as you push a button, ALL of the colors potentially change. And the "combination" might be something like:
If Red and Green are paired together (one on top of the other), press the button to the right of the Red one. Otherwise, press the lower Right button. If you can do that 6 times in a row, you're in.

Such a pattern would be VERY difficult for someone to learn through observation. And with random displays, the combination (which keys to press) would virtually change every time. And you'd be locking out the color-blind burglars (and blind burglars too).

Unfortunately, though, that's the same combination as my luggage.

Re:

[Lachlan Hunt (1021263)]

Someone I know who is Red-Green colourblind once told me he could tell the difference between red and green lights because they lights have different intensities, or something like that. How do you think colour blind people deal with traffic lights?

Re:

[kennykb (547805)]

Traffic engineers choose the colours carefully so that people with the common forms of colour blindness (including deuteranopes, like me) can distinuguish them. Incandescent traffic-light green (and aviation green) looks blue to me, but it doesn't look either red or yellow, so I don't get them confused. With LED traffic lights, the traffic engineers have found a green light that does look green to me.

Re:

[kennykb (547805)]

And (committing the sin of following up to myself), the designers of Epson projectors did not use similar care. For some years, the only status indication on the thing has been a single LED, which can be steady red Power off), flashing red (Powering down), steady green (Power on), flashing green (Powering up), or steady yellow (Lamp burnt out). I cannot for the life of me tell the colors apart, and I'm always doing things like powering down a projector that's just kicked into "power save" when I want to h

Easier for Colorblind

[camperdave (969942)]

If you were color blind, you could make this easy for you (and similar color blind people) to open, but hard for "normals". The colors of the buttons are completely configurable, because they are generated by a tri-color LED. So all you have to do is choose a palette of colors that appear the same to you, and use them for the decoy keys. You would also choose a color that you can distinguish for the hot key. That way, us "normals" would see a bunch of random colored buttons, but you would see a bunch of

Re:Amusing, but a problem for one in ten men?

[0100010001010011 (652467)]

Why the hell would someone or someone living with someone that was blind install one of these? No one is forcing you to use them. It's like saying "10% of the population is in wheel chairs. I hope stairs never see any sort of wide spread use".

Some people may be better with colors than numbers. Give them the option of making this their remote less garage door opener: "green green blue blue red purple green" garage door opens.

Re:Amusing, but a problem for one in ten men?

[NMerriam (15122)]

Only if the value is different can a color-blind person tell that the colors are different. If you tell them that the red is darker than the green, they can then tell you which one is darker than the other if they're next to each other, but if all they have is blue, brown, and yellow to choose from, they have no idea if that brown is the red or the green.

Re:Amusing, but a problem for one in ten men?

[cp.tar (871488)]

I'm colorblind.

Red-green, but not too badly. I get along just fine, but fuck those test patterns. There was some kind of a jumbo poster ad with that pattern, and the only time I was able to read it was at night, from a sufficient distance.

Certain shades of red, green, purple, brown and grey simply blend into each other. When I see something colored like that, I can't even name the color.
Kind of like someone tone-deaf guessing whether he heard a C or an E note. He can hear whether it was high or low, just like I see whether it is light or dark, but other than that, I simply cannot name it.

For instance, most of this /. page is green. Though it may be light brown.
The frame around the text field I'm typing my answer in is a different shade of green, but it might also be grey.
I'm leaning towards green, but I don't really see it.

Re:

[BugZRevengE (622917)]

it.slashdot.org has brown as its colour, not green :-) So it is not the colour blind, but rather, poor design that makes the it section look crappy brown.

Re:Amusing, but a problem for one in ten men?

[cp.tar (871488)]

it.slashdot.org has brown as its colour, not green :-) So it is not the colour blind, but rather, poor design that makes the it section look crappy brown.

Yay. You just proved me colorblind.

/mope

Re:Amusing, but a problem for one in ten men?

[JPeMu (942971)]

I'm red-green colour blind.

Many of the PopCap games (and similar) I have played where colour is significant have overlays shown (as an option) which aid me just fine, and I'm sure a similar thing would work here, even though that's assuming that the original would be unusable by someone colour blind.

The one thing that really used to irritate me was Teletext (before it faded into obsolescence) - Being unable to tell the difference between Green and Yellow, and Cyan and White made for trying times, especially when some insensitive clod chose green and yellow as two of the "fastext" colours. Oh, and chose blue for the cyan option (which looks white to me!).

I have no problem wiring a plug; only occasional problems wiring more complex items (whereby I am forced to use direct lighting to make the colour distinctions); and no problem with traffic lights. Only where I must choose between two shades that differ by red hue alone (or near enough) do I have problems. I know that red-green colour blindness is not the only kind, but it often feels like colour blindness is not considered when designing new products/websites etc. and I find that disappointing for lack of such a simple consideration.

Re:Amusing, but a problem for one in ten men?

[Drogo007 (923906)]

Me and my brother both used to work for the same game studio, and he's also Red-Green colorblind.

Anytime the devs came up with color as a way of differentiating things, we'd drag my bother to the screen and have him test the interface. It was sad, almost to the point of being funny, just how long it took them to make a usable color scheme somtimes

Dads workshop

[I_am_the_cheese (1264298)]

I think any kid over four could figure it out by watching a couple of times...

Re:Dads workshop

[jrumney (197329)]

I think you underestimate the capabilities of 3, 2 and even 1 year olds. My youngest is 20 months old, and any "child-proof" device to keep him out of things is useless already. My kids can get things apart that I didn't even know came apart, and when I ask them, they show me how they did it, so its not just random brute force they're using.

Re:

[SQLGuru (980662)]

Smaller fingers fit between the snap together plastic cases a lot better than our pudgy little digits........

Layne

Tot Lok

[Slashdot Parent (995749)]

My kids were never able to defeat Tot Lok [amazon.com].

They are a pain in the rear to install, but once installed properly, your kid is not going to get that cabinet or drawer open before you figure out what's going on.

That's the whole idea, really--to slow them down. Just make sure you put the key someplace that the kid can't get to without constructing some serious access ramp.

You want the parental, "Just what do you think your doing?" to refer to constructing a ramp rather than you kid spraying her little brother with Raid because "he was bugging her".

Actually useful

[by Anonymous Coward]

One reason it's useful - if you have a door lock with a code, you wear the numbers away on the keys that form the code, significantly reducing security. For instance, I have a bank card widget (standard in some parts of Europe) which I need to authenticate with my bank by means of challenge-response; it eventually becomes obvious what your card PIN is because those numbers wear more, and the object itself becomes a security risk. This way, your software can ensure even use of buttons.

Blind people and the colourblind need not apply, however...

Re:Actually useful

[RuBLed (995686)]

That is why I always insist that my PIN uses all the available numbers in the numeric keypad.

Re:

[Stooshie (993666)]

You have a 10 digit pin number?!?!?

Re:

[BrotherBeal (1100283)]

Or a binary keypad.

Re:

[Stooshie (993666)]

... or a binary keypad ...

Hope it's not 128-bit encryption then? ;-) You'd have to memorize a 32-digit hex number and convert to binary on the fly.

Would you still have only 3 chances to get it right? Would the queues go on for ages while they waited for people to get their code right?

Hey, maybe that's a new CAPTCHA to make sure you are a techy?

Re:

[SQLGuru (980662)]

I used to have a 10 digit pin (this was in 1995/1996 with Wells Fargo). It was fine for the ATM, but this was also about the same time I started seeing self-swipe payment devices at registers. Most of them could only handle the 4 digit variety. I actually picked my grocery store based on which one would take my 10 digit pin (I paid cash or check everywhere else).

Since, I've stuck to the less secure 4 digit variety because it's convenient.

Layne

Re:

[Stooshie (993666)]

... Blind people and the colourblind need not apply, however ...

Presumably, for any colour combination, each key is hit a certain number of times meaning that colour blind people would remember the number of times each button is pressed.

In fact, wouldn't that get over the problem of people being able to see the colour combo. just don't display the combo, but memorize the number of presses on each button.

Re:

[somersault (912633)]

Considering the colours are moving around, how is remembering the number of times pressed going to help if they can't distinguish between certain colours?

Re:

[Stooshie (993666)]

... Considering the colours are moving around ...

No they're not, according to the article:

... flashing blue buttons while it's idle ...

and

... On key presses, the keys will change colors ...

presumably in some fixed order.

This means that all you have to do is memorise the number of keypresses. In a more secure mode the lights wouldn't even have to be on.

Re:

[somersault (912633)]

The colours move around when you press a button, I didn't say that they are constantly moving, that would be pretty awkward if you press it just as it's going to change. If the colours were going to move in a fixed order, why are people here saying that this is a good method to spread wear across all the keys rather than just a few keys getting worn down. If it's going to be a fixed order, why change the colours at all?

Be careful with this

[Hognoxious (631665)]

Be careful with this, especially if you live in Boston.

i had a keyless entry system a while ago

[LM741N (258038)]

but after using the sledge hammer, each time I would have to buy a new door. Got expensive. I'd recommend a key

This reminds me of those buttons on Star Trek

[Drinking Bleach (975757)]

(the original series, that is)

Would make kind of a fun retro-future thing.

Woof!

[SeaFox (739806)]

This lock obviously wasn't designed for high security use since anyone in the same room would be able to see you and your amazing technicolor dream lock's pattern;

Thank God! Now my dog wont be able to get in.

Why do I feel like this summary was written just for the "amazing technicolor dream lock" pun.

Task based locks

[sprintkayak (582245)]

I've always liked the idea of a task based lock.

Not necessarily more secure, though.

A few ideas:

• Play a tune on piano keys (sound off for more security).
• Non trivial math: how many people can integrate sec^3? How many B&E type criminals can?

Any other ideas?

Re:

[RuBLed (995686)]

Replace your welcome home mat with a Dance Dance Revolution pad...

Burglar could get in after perfecting PARANOiA Survivor MAX...

Re:

[J'ai Friedpork (1293672)]

Non trivial math: how many people can integrate sec^3? How many B&E type criminals can?

I can't, but my crowbar got me through math class before and can do it again.

'Dig' aliens have prior art

[Werrismys (764601)]

In the lucasarts game DIG, the ancient aliens use locks with colored geometric shapes.

unnecessary tech

[petes_PoV (912422)]

Take a well-working technique: numeric keypads. Replace it with an unfamiliar interface, where the baddies can see from further away, especially in the dark, what the solution is. Fail to account for one of the most common disabilities (colour blindness) and you have an utterly pointless application of technology for it's own sake.

Finally, what do you do when one of the lights fail?

Avoid.

Re:While occasional steps backwards are inevitable

[Fluffeh (1273756)]

Well, look out captain obvious.

The whole point of this is that the person putting this together might enjoy the experience of putting it together, get satisfaction from a finished product and have a cool novelty way of opening or closing a door.

Do you think that people making transistor radios do it for fun, or because they think that $20 worth of electronic junk from a electronic junk store will give them better sound than a manufactured stereo system?

I rarely go to this level of pointing out a clear case of "swing and miss" with a reply/post - but wow!

Re:While occasional steps backwards are inevitable

[Stooshie (993666)]

... So now this is a hobby site? News for HOBBYISTS? OK ...

I don't know, but you may be a professional electronic locksmith and for you this might be just a play-thing.

But for me, a programmer, this is interesting and a good introduction to building a small piece of hardware. I know shamefully little about electronics (well, what I can remeber from 1st year uni. physics)

Doesn't stop me being a nerd though.

Re:While occasional steps backwards are inevitable

[cheater512 (783349)]

Fine. Replace it with LED digits then. Happy? :P