Talk:Physical Access Control Project

Discussion: Physical Access Control Project

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I'm with you on the wiki-tard front, and not sure the "discussion" page is really all that good for discussions, being essentially a whiteboard. Anyone?

Andrew, thanks for cleaning this up and making the project look all professional-like. Feel free to delete any of the old material as you see fit. I wasn't sure what the tone of the project should be initially, and I took it fairly far in the unprofessional direction. I like what you've done with it better.

As for the logic layer in-between the card reader and electronic impeder/strikeplate/whatever, that should be fairly simple, depending on how much fun we decide to have with it. Myself, I'm for keeping it fairly open to allow multiple (amusing?) opening mechanisms in addition to the keycards, but that will necessarily reduce the security of the lock.

Are we building a fortress or just beefing up our current (minimal!) security?

(Elliot)

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So i'm a wiki-tard, is there anyway to make these discussions threaded? Seems like it would make more sense

   Added by Mark W, Thu, May 22, 2008: I think this is what you're looking for: Electric Door Strike

Elliot demo'ed his knock-code routine and got some useful feedback. Things like ambient noise and a relatively-long timeout period need improvement.

Andrew suggested using a "Sonic Screwdriver" a la Doctor Who. This opens up all sorts of fun/funny code mechanisms. For instance, a keyfob with an ultrasonic speaker might be sweet. Or use LEDs and blink out a code string into a light sensor. And like the RFID scheme, we could have individual keys for individual peoples.

Thoughts: Smart cards can offer some nice crypto, but they'd require the purchase of additional hardware (a kit) and are more expensive than RFID (around $2.50)

Another idea I had, and kinda like, is to have a computer connected to the internet and a SIP provider (as noted repeatedly, you can get free inbound calls via Google GrandCentral). When a call is received, it could listen for an access code (prepend a few digits for user id if desired) --NikolasCo 09:27, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

how easy is it to forge phone number? because otherwise you could just have a database of member cellphones --phf

pretty easy with asterisk and a voip provider. --markw

Well, you guys can use the "add a comment" button (i.e. the little + next to edit)

I know you were looking at a couple of options for the electronic door as of the last dork bot, I found this part in passing on hackaday.com http://www.smarthome.com/519012.html I hope to make it down from baltimore soon! -justin.

To answer Elliot's question:

I think the purpose is to provide an extensible level of access to our members, improve upon the trivial amount of security we currently have and finally to be creative and have fun designing "peripherals" to add onto our strike plate / logic controller setup we choose.

Justin: Thanks ! That's what I've been looking to pick-up. I'm just waiting for the mechanical portion to show up so I can install that and move onto the electronics.