Andrea Gerber of baimos technologies writes:

Mobile devices are becoming ever more prevalent in our daily lives and so it comes as no surprise that they are now being utilized in security-relevant scenarios such as car-sharing and shared parking. Mobility solutions such as these increasingly rely on smartphone applications, hence technologies arise that allow the smartphone to morph into a digital key. One of the companies invested in providing secure digital access solutions in this area is baimos technologies. Their patented BlueID technology turns Google Android and Apple iOS smartphone apps into a digital key.

Using a smartphone app as a digital key allows access to a wide range of physical objects, such as gates, barriers and car doors; it even enables starting cars via an app. Access controls for physical objects are suitable for any scenario that typically employs apps but still uses traditional keys or access cards; e.g. collaborative consumption scenarios such as car-sharing, car rental and shared parking. Digital key functionality can be integrated into both new and existing smartphone apps using developer tools like the BlueID Software Development Kit (SDK).

The benefit of digital access as opposed to access cards is that digital keys can be distributed within seconds over 3G/4G networks and are customized for a specific purpose. Hence the duration of validity, delivery to specific user groups, access to single or multiple items and even the timeframe in which the digital keys can be used (i.e. 8am to 6pm) may be adjusted individually. The tickets can also be revoked easily at any time in circumstances of lost phones. Digital keys also remove the need for time-consuming manual handover.

An app using the technology can execute an action like opening a car door within 300 milliseconds – that’s less than a third of a second. The connection set-up takes around 80 milliseconds and an encrypted digital key is transmitted within 200 milliseconds. BlueID and similar technologies support wireless standards such as mobile internet, Bluetooth Smart (Bluetooth 4.0 Low Energy), NFC, RFID and WiFi. Thus even in an area with no reception or internet access, commands can always be executed through a short-range wireless protocol.

Further information on the technology is available at www.BlueID.net