Unlock your door with a key or fingerprint? How about face unlock or a palm reader? Coming to a lock near you

In recent years we have seen many smart deadlocks and door locks arrive on the scene but at CES 2024 we have seen several companies come out with something new — a palm reader unlock and a face unlock. While not entirely new, they are new to door locks.

Philips 5000 Series Wi-Fi Palm Recognition Smart Deadbolt

The name says it all. The Philips 5000 series deadbolt in question unlocks using a touch-free palm reading system and will support Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa allowing you to use voice commands to control and manage the lock.

The palm reader reads the veins in your palm and detects and recognises each individual’s unique palm vein pattern. According to Philips this offers “unparalleled security as replication becomes an insurmountable challenge.”

The lock includes grab-and-go technology with built in proximity sensors which unlocks the door automatically if the lock is approached from inside the house — let’s face it, the inability to truly deadlock a smart deadbolt is its true weakness so this is really no different and doesn’t make it any less secure from someone inside, it already is.

Aside from the palm unlock you can also unlock using PIN codes, keys, or the Philips Home Access app.

The Philips Wi-Fi Palm Recognition Smart Deadbolt has Wi-Fi capabilities built-in and thus is easy to pair and set up on your network and in the app. This also streamlines its setup within your smart digital assistant’s app. The lock also doubles as a doorbell which will not just ring the included wireless door chime but also send a notification to your smartphone via the Philips app.

The Philips Wi-Fi Palm Recognition Smart Deadbolt will be available in the US in the first half of 2024 for US$359.99 and while it is unlikely to arrive Downunder any time soon you can be sure the technology eventually will, so I’ll look forward to when it does.

Lockly Visage Smart Lock with Matter

The Lockly Visage smart lock also replaces your deadbolt and can be unlocked using facial recognition and is compatible with Matter as well (although Matter certification is still pending). The smart lock uses binocular facial recognition through its two IR sensors to unlock the door. Up to 100 face profiles can be stored in the lock allowing you to have your entire family and friendship group facial profiles saved so they can also enter your house hands-free.

It will unlock when it detects your face 2.6 feet away — maybe 75cm — in under 1.5 seconds. It’s strange using decimals in imperial measurements, but this is the US and their ever-strange system of measurement.

You can also unlock the Lockly Visage using the digital keypad, RFID key cards and fobs or even a key! Remote control, management and sharing of the lock is performed using the Lockly smartphone app. The lock also includes Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, NFC and RFID built-in.

The Lockly Visage is compatible with Apple Home, Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. The Lockly Visage Smart Lock will be available in the US in their Summer for US$349. Once again, unlikely to arrive here in Australia but you can be sure this tech will arrive in other locks at some stage.

EFTM’s Coverage of CES 2024 is made possible by the ongoing support of our regular advertisers and supporters such as Arlo, Belkin, Oppo, Motorola, Ecovacs, LG, Netgear, JBL and Trend Micro, and by additional support from Samsung, LG, Hisense, TCL, and ASUS