I’m a bit OCD when checking that my front door has been locked. I couldn’t even count the number of times I’d returned to my flat after leaving only a few minutes earlier to check that I’d locked the door properly.
99 out of 100 times, it has been locked properly. But, unfortunately, 8 out of 10 times, the return journey made me late for wherever I was originally heading.
In summary: it’s a pain, but I can’t help myself.
I want to create a way for people like myself to remotely check that they have locked their door without going home and physically checking it themselves.
I imagine this could be an app that users could boot up whenever they feel the urge to reassure themselves.
Thinking about how it would work in the home – my initial thoughts were to install a mini-camera near the door that could photograph the lock each time it was requested. But, looking at my own lock, there is no distinguishing “locked” position, like some doors.
Speaking to some friends about it, there are already a number of home camera devices like the canary, which has an inbuilt motion detector and will send a message to the user’s phone and a video whenever motion has been detected.
My concept is much more low-fi without the bells and whistles of some of the cameras on the market.
I’ll flesh out the concept in the coming weeks to check its viability, desirability (to other people) and feasibility and hopefully post again soon.
If any techs out there want to get involved, please reach out. Dev/engineering help would be appreciated 😉