Leave your keys in your pocket,” is the advice given by computer programmers at University of California San Diego who recently created ‘Sneakey’ software; an application that uses a digital image of a key to produce an exact copy in physical form within minutes.
Sneakey Robbers Turn to the Social Web, by Lidija Davis
(thank you donna)
cool
Mar 17th, 2009 / 9:54 pm
Does the software guess the correct blank too? I wonder how it handles similar blanks (e.g. long and short versions). I suspect only locksmiths even use code cutters, and most people don’t go to a locksmith unless they have to. There are plenty of other places to get keys cut for much cheaper (I used to work at a gift shop that offered key cutting).
This probably won’t work for newer car keys regardless. If the blanks have transponders, only car dealers have them.
Unless you’re trying to break into someone’s house, this software won’t help much.
Still kind of interesting though!
Mar 17th, 2009 / 11:50 pm
Unless your address is next to the keys it’s hardly dangerous, is it?!
Can’t those same people come up with a decent way to stop spam instead?
Sheesh.
Mar 18th, 2009 / 12:19 pm
Simon, you aren’t thinking like a criminal (not a bad thing in itself). Its not hard to figure out where someone lives. And it seems now that its not hard to get a key to someone’s place even if they don’t want you to have one. A stalker’s dream. Keys staying in the pocket.
Mar 18th, 2009 / 6:35 pm