CES is where we get to see all those cool tech gadgets you see in movies become a reality, and with Lockly’s latest smart lock, facial recognition is finally coming to our front doors. Yes, now you can unlock your front door like Tom Cruise.
The smart lock company is showing off its newest product at CES 2024 this week. The $349 Lockly Visage smart lock with facial recognition can replace your standard deadbolt and turn your doorway into a high-tech haven. Just approach, and the door will unlock. The smart lock also works with Apple’s Home Key and a fingerprint reader for other high-tech home entry options.
Facial recognition is already a thing in video doorbells — Apple Home and Google Home both support it for telling you who is at your front door — but this is the first time it’s been incorporated into a consumer smart lock. While fingerprint unlocking is already a popular option on smart locks (and, in my opinion, the easiest, fastest way to unlock a door), facial recognition will make the whole process totally hands-free. Philips has also come out with a new biometric lock that it’s launching at CES this year: the $359.99 Wi-Fi Palm Recognition Smart Deadbolt uses a built-in palm scanner to unlock your door.
However, the Visage has real Minority Report vibes design-wise, and if you don’t like a high-tech look, this probably isn’t for you. According to Lockly, the face unlock uses binocular facial recognition through two 2MP-resolution IR sensors to unlock your door as you approach. It can store up to 100 face profiles, so you can have friends and family enter hands-free, too. The company says it will unlock when you are within 2.6 feet and should do it in under 1.5 seconds.
The lock has a digital keypad and RFID key cards and fobs as other access options beyond scanning your face. Plus, you can use a regular old key. The Visage works with the Lockly smartphone app for remote control of the lock and sharing and managing access. It’s also packed with radios to enable all of the above, including Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, NFC, and RFID.
For smart home and voice assistant integration, the lock will work with Apple Home, Amazon Alexa, and Google Assistant when it arrives this summer. The company says the Visage is compatible with the new Matter smart home standard, although it’s still waiting on official certification.
Speaking of Matter, Lockly is making good on a promise it made at CES last year that it would add Matter support to its existing locks. The company is launching a $79.99 Matter Link Hub later this year. This is a plug-in device that Lockly says can bring most existing Lockly products into Matter, including the Flex Touch Fingerprint Deadbolt, Access Touch, and Secure Plus. This will also add Apple Home support to these locks for the first time. The Matter Link Hub will replace any existing Lockly hub you use with your lock, so you won’t need two.
Lockly also announced the first Z-Wave-certified fingerprint lock as a partnership with Alarm.com, meaning you can integrate it with any Alarm.com-powered home security system. The Lockly Guard Deadbolt Z-Wave and a version without fingerprint access will be available directly to pro installers.
