First, unlocking method

Smart door lock this type of product actually appeared many years ago, just started with a password lock, and then appeared a swipe card door lock, in recent years, with the development of biometrics technology, and the emergence of fingerprint recognition, face recognition and other new door locks.

Fingerprint recognition: There are two main types of fingerprint recognition technology for smart door locks on the market, optical fingerprint recognition and semiconductor fingerprint recognition.

Optical fingerprint recognition is the use of light refraction and reflection, through the optical sensor to collect the optical image of finger fingerprints, and then compare and identify. Optical fingerprint recognition technology is widely used, and most of the daily commuting card machines or access control systems use this technology. The cost of optical fingerprint recognition is lower, but there is a risk of being stolen by false fingerprints (such as silicone simulated fingerprints).

Semiconductor fingerprint recognition: mainly the use of capacitance, electric field, temperature, pressure and other principles to achieve fingerprint image acquisition. Semiconductor fingerprint recognition module only recognizes living fingerprints, can penetrate the skin surface hair layer, high security. Prevents analog fingerprint cracking.

Finger/palmar vein recognition: The hemoglobin in the blood flowing in the finger vein absorbs infrared light to form venous vessel images for detection and verification. This identification method collects deeper biological information, which is difficult to steal and difficult to copy, and must be identified by flowing blood, which is more secure. And the elderly, children, special people can be identified, stable, high recognition rate.

3D face recognition: Use 3D cameras to establish the user's 3D face model, detect and track the features of the human face through live detection and face recognition algorithms, and compare and verify the 3D face information stored in the door lock. 3D vision currently has three mainstream solutions: structured light, binocular vision, light time-of-flight method.

3D structure is the mainstream technology in the current smart door lock, this solution through the professional projection module triangulation, the formation of difficult to be copied, more dense and reliable three-dimensional face. The most widely used landing application of 3D structured light is facial unlocking and payment, in addition to smart door locks, it is also used in the mobile phone and payment industry, which can meet the security standards of payment level. However, in the author's experience, the current speed of face recognition is not perfect.

NFC unlocking: The smart door lock with NFC function can read the information of mobile phones, watches and wristbands with built-in NFC, and realize unlocking with mobile phones, watches and wristbands.

Voice unlock: This is mainly through Apple HomeKit, using Siri for voice control to open the door lock. For example, when doing housework at home, or other situations that are not convenient to open the door, shout "Hey Siri, open the door" to the iPhone, and the door will automatically open, making life more convenient.

Body sensing

Like face recognition, security monitoring these functions if they have been used, it will be very power consuming, so you need to sense the human body to trigger detection, check the detection range of someone to open further functions, in order to avoid frequent triggering. Most smart door locks use infrared sensing, and some use microwave radar sensing.

Microwave radar sensing: smart door lock uses microwave radar technology to detect the human body, through the plane antenna to emit microwave to identify the human body reflection waveform for detection, when there is a human body near, the door lock will find people, and the next step of intelligent processing. According to the author's evaluation experience, the sensitivity of the human body is still not perfect.

Security monitoring

Traditional cat eye uses optical imaging, the viewing Angle range is small, the image is blurred and deformed, and the situation outside the door is not clear. The corridor cannot be used when there are no lights. The traditional cat eye is also easy to be dismantled by criminals, becoming a loophole for unlocking the door.

Electronic cat eye: the camera collects the image outside the door, the screen inside the door can be seen on the mobile phone APP, the screen outside the door, the role of electronic display security monitoring, but also integrated doorbell function, also known as visual doorbell. Intelligent door lock with electronic cat eye, can automatically realize portrait capture, video recording, photo upload functions, users can remotely through the door lock capture outside the photo to decide whether to remotely unlock.

Video call: Some smart door locks with electronic cat eyes also integrate video call function, when the visitor presses the doorbell, the owner's mobile phone APP will push the doorbell notification. At this time, through the APP video viewing function, you can open real-time remote visual two-way call, and remote unlock.

Defense: With the smart home gateway, this function can automatically turn off home appliances, close curtains to protect privacy, and open camera monitoring, remote alarm and other functions.

2. Safety

Some smart door locks have a variety of security alarm functions, such as lock pick alarm, multiple trial and error alarm, mask/forget to close alarm, low power reminder, etc., can sound to remind users, or in an emergency with sound and light alarm to scare off criminals. The smart door lock will also send the warning information to the user's mobile phone APP in real time.

Threat alarm: When the user is forced to open the door by the bad guy, you can enter the specific threat alarm password or fingerprint set before, then the door will open normally, will not let the bad guy find abnormal, but the smart door lock will secretly send alarm information to the mobile phone APP or other set channels, so that the family can quickly rescue.

Lingering alarm: An alarm is generated when someone moves at the door after the set time. If someone stays outside the door for more than 20 seconds without opening the door and leaving, the smart electronic cat eye will automatically alarm the owner and record a video, and then push it to the owner's mobile phone client to remind the owner of the door and suspicious personnel.

Anti-small black box: A small black box is a device that can emit electromagnetic pulses, which can interfere with or even destroy electronic devices. Some low-end smart door locks that do not meet security standards have insufficient electromagnetic shielding, and will crash and restart when attacked by a small black box, so as to automatically open the lock. The standard smart door lock has enough electromagnetic shielding and better security design, and will not be cracked by the small black box.

other

AI intelligent learning: The intelligent door lock with AI intelligent learning can be constantly updated and learned in the user's unlocking process, step by step to improve the unlocking accuracy and speed, constantly reduce the rejection rate, improve the fingerprint recognition rate, and make the smart door lock faster and easier to use.

Anti-pet misopening: double induction inside the door, you need to hold the induction area behind the handle and press the door button at the same time to unlock the door. This can prevent pets from opening doors, as well as anti-cat eye unlocking.

Of course, in addition to these technologies and functions mentioned above, there are other more subdivided applications, which will not be detailed here.

Third, industry brand pattern

In recent years, the rapid development of smart door locks has absorbed many manufacturers, traditional lock manufacturers, as well as home appliance companies, Internet companies, security companies and so on. First, because of its sales, potential market prospects, and second, because the smart door lock is the entrance to the smart home, in this layout can seize the opportunity. In this stage of many players, the market scene was once very chaotic, but it has gradually matured.

In terms of brand pattern, according to the online monitoring data of Ovey Cloud network, a household appliance industry research agency, the top three brands of smart door locks in 2021 are Xiaomi, Cadis and Deschmann, and the sales volume and sales of the three together have exceeded 50%. Ovey offline data shows that in China's smart door lock market for fine decoration housing in 2020, Jianlong Haibis, Cadis and Beida rank the top three, with a combined market share of 30%.

According to prospective Industry Research Institute data, in 2021 China's smart door lock online market, Xiaomi occupied 23.6% of the market share, ranking first. Ranked second and third are Cadis and Deschmann, respectively, with more than 10 percent.

It can be seen that the concentration of the smart door lock industry has increased compared with the previous few days, and the head enterprise has begun to play a decisive role in the development of the smart door lock industry. Among the top ten brands, there are few traditional home appliance brands, which are still waiting for strength.

Smart door locks are considered to be a potential 100 billion market. In terms of sales, according to prospective Industry Research Institute data, China's smart door lock sales in 2021 were 16.95 million units, an increase of 5.9% from 2020, and online market sales were 3.736 million units, accounting for about 28%. Offline channels account for more than 70%, which is the main sales channel of smart door locks. According to Ovey data, in 2021, China's smart door lock online market sales of 4.58 million sets, an increase of 31.4%; Sales amounted to 7.1 billion yuan, up 35.5% year on year; The average price was 1,544 yuan, up 3.1 percent year on year.

According to Ovey online data, in the price segment of smart door locks in 2021, the share of products below 1,000 yuan and higher cost performance accounted for 37%; The share of the middle price segment of 1000-2000 yuan is 39%; The high-end share of more than 2000 yuan is 24%, and the overall distribution is more balanced.

In general, the current price of smart door locks is still relatively high, more than ten times the price of ordinary door locks, and it belongs to the high-end products for the mass family. Whether the old house should replace the new door lock, I believe that many people will choose to say no, and the new house will use smart door locks more common.

Iv. Summary

In 2021, China's smart door lock sales growth is very good, and what will the future be? Ovey analysts predict that in 2022, China's smart door lock online omni-channel sales are expected to reach 5.7 million units, an increase of 24.5%; Sales are expected to reach 8.54 billion yuan, up 20.3% year on year, with a promising outlook.

This is the natural progression of the market. However, the use experience of smart door locks on the market still needs to be further improved. The recognition technology of smart door locks is based on fingerprints, and high-end products will join face recognition technology. At present, the experience of using these two technologies is still not perfect, such as inaccurate fingerprint recognition for the elderly and children, slow face recognition, etc., and the experience needs to be further improved.

And the current price of smart door locks is still high, which has an impact on its popularity. China has 400 million families, more than 1.4 billion people, and the current smart door lock market penetration rate is less than 10%, far lower than the level of developed countries in Europe, America, Japan and South Korea. In the future, if the price of smart door locks decreases and the use experience improves, it is believed that it will enter the next stage of growth in popularity.