Sequiam Biometrics (fka SQUM)

[analystslie]

Unlocking the future with a finger scan
Lake Forest team prepares for launch of biometric front-door lock.

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/news/local/lakeforest/article_1631868.php

"A concoction."

"Something like a doorbell."

That's how electronics expert Nick VandenBrekel describes his company's first attempt at constructing a door lock that opened with a fingerprint scan instead of a key.

The awkward contraption served its purpose. In 2004, it proved to his company, Sequiam Corp. of Orlando, Fla., and to its prospective partner, Black & Decker, that the idea of building a moderately priced biometric front-door lock was feasible.

"They had taken our Powerbolt and rigged it with their biometric sensors," recalls Dave Albert, vice president of brand marketing and business development for Black & Decker's Hardware & Home Improvement Group in Lake Forest. "We thought, 'Wow. They can do this.' As a concept, it had merit."

Such a lock promptly became part of each company's business strategy, so they teamed up to create a marketable version, combining Sequiam's experience in designing biometric scanners and the expertise of Black & Decker's Kwikset lock division.

Their shared development of the SmartScan lock, scheduled to go on sale June 1, is an example of companies acting decisively to prepare for what they foresee as the future of technology and the consumer marketplace.

VIDEO: Click here to see SmartScan in action.

"Biometrics we saw as strategically important for the future," Albert says. "It's not a question of if, but when mechanical keys will become obsolete."

TWO TEAMS

The companies assigned teams of specialists to the project.

On the Sequiam side, the team consisted of 15 people from the company's work force of about 60. Among them were 13 engineers specializing in the technology of using fingerprints and eye scans to control access to electronic devices.

The Black & Decker side was represented by its advanced development team — eight to 10 engineers from the 500 Orange County employees of Black & Decker's Hardware & Home Improvement Group.

Their specialties were locks and hardware, but their leader was Michael Maridakis, chief electronic engineer at the Lake Forest division, who was hired in April 2005 to spearhead the project. As a veteran of defense and medical-device industries, he was the liaison between the hardware experts of Kwikset and the biometrics experts at Sequiam.

"He could speak our language," says Sequiam's VandenBrekel.

The advanced development team for the local division of Black & Decker is responsible for planning and researching technology for future products. In 2005, that team's focus became the biometric lock.

"They look over the horizon, watching for something that no one else is doing, or something we can do better," says Eric Lundquist, director of brand marketing in Lake Forest.

NECESSARY FEATURES

The group's marketing and product management staff contributed its own advice, such as the new lock's recommended $199 price tag.

That puts it above Kwikset's standard $39 deadbolt lock and keypad-controlled $99 deadbolt, but far below other biometric locks on the market.

Competitors are offering "high-end commercial applications controlled by fingerprint and eye scans," says Gale Johnson, editor of the Locksmith Ledger trade magazine in Chicago. Prices for rival locks range from $500 to $750.

Black & Decker said the SmartScan lock needed to:

Fit in a door's standard deadbolt hole.
Be simple for a consumer to use.
Have no connection to household wiring. Making the system work for a year with four AA batteries required creating a "whole new power management system," VandenBrekel says. When it's not in use, the biometric system goes into a "sleep mode," with just a low-power monitor to wake up the system when a user touches it.
In October 2005, within six months of starting his new job, Maridakis, his team and the Sequiam team had developed what he calls "a working prototype with some functionality."

They could then debug it, improve it and test how well it functioned in different situations, including temperatures from 150 to minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit. During a year of testing, revising and retesting, the teams worked to make the system easier to use.

The control commands on the unit's LCD panel had seemed clear to the engineers, but the sales and marketing staff suggested changes to make them "more human," Maridakis says. The revised system allows a homeowner to name rather than just number the people whose fingerprints have been entered as authorized users.

Also, babysitters and housekeepers can be authorized to open the door only on specific days each week. Guests, contractors and others can be authorized for a specific period of time.

"If my teenagers aren't back by midnight, I can set it so they'll have to knock on the door and wake me up to get in," Lundquist says.

The scanner consists of radio-frequency sensors that are focused just under the outer layer of skin, so they work even with dirty or callused fingers

After that year of improvements, SmartScan lock was test-marketed last fall at 55 Home Depot stores in New York and San Diego and at 150 stores in Canada.

"They couldn't keep them on the shelves," Maridakis says.

Johnson, the trade magazine editor, says locksmiths are eagerly awaiting the new biometric lock.

"At the recent locksmith convention in Chicago," he says, "everyone was interested in it. Everyone was gathering at that booth."