AirKeyNtre

User Concept
Our first prototype (Huge thanks to Shaperize!)
Application screens
Tutorial screens

Inspiration

Half a year ago, a member of our team spent his first two weeks of a five month stay in Vancouver in an Airbnb flat. He got the key from a keybox and the PIN via text message from the host. Everything worked out well. After two month, he passed that flat again and just for fun typed in the same PIN he got earlier. When he figured out that it was still the same PIN it was an alarming event, as this is a huge security issue. So he came up with the idea for AirKeyNtry.

What it does

It's a physical keystore but in difference to already existing ones, it is equipped with a GSM module. Thus, it is possible to change the PIN to open the box remotely via a smartphone application.

How we built it

To build the box we used Autodesk Fusion 360 and 3D-Printers. The hardware in the box is powered by a Raspberry PI which we hooked up with a number pad and a GSM-Module. The app is written as a native Android application.

Challenges we ran into

Setting up the hardware environment and get everything working together. Building up an environment which is suitable for two hardware-hackers at the same time. Also, getting the GSM-Module working took us many hours and some of our nerves.

On the software side coming up with a security concept which is strong enough for our use case was not too easy.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Creating a working and handy box-prototype and integrating the hardware as good as possible. Also sending an end to end encrypted message from the app to the box and read the decrypted PIN the first time was a huge success.

What we learned

CAD/Hardware construction, working with a GSM-Module, hardware-prototyping/shaping a real product,

What's next for AirKeyNtre

Enhance security concept, create a second prototype not made from plastic, accessing the Airbnb API to import apartments and integrate sharing option with customers, build in BLE for maintenance purpose