Losing an important key (like to your house or car) is a whirlwind ordeal. The emotions it brings are swift and unpleasant: panic, fear, that feeling of your stomach bottoming out. And then there’s the insane cost of calling a locksmith out to help you. A new key-making service can alleviate those feelings, day or night.

KeyMe is a kiosk that can make you duplicate keys whenever you need them. It stores digital copies of your keys in a database so they’re ready to be copied at any time. Storage is free, but if you want it copied, you’ll have to shell out almost $20. KeyMe also copies keys on the spot for $3.49.

Key copying has never been this high-tech. The stored keys are retrieved by fingerprint and KeyMe features sophisticated encryption, so your personal information is never recorded. This is a bright and useful way to keep yourself calm during a minor emergency…and a good way to keep you from breaking a window to get in.

The post Automated Key-Copy Service For the Incurably Disorganized first appeared on Gajitz.

Every geek needs a place to hang his or her hat, and probably a few keys, too. There have been a few DIY Lego key holders circulating around the interwebs for a while now, but we like this one because it’s simple and effective, and it includes the part number for the piece you can attach a key ring to – no drilling or special hardware required.

The project is really as simple as hanging up some flat base pieces (using those no-damage foam sticky pads) and attaching a standard round key ring to the Lego piece with the hole in it.If you don’t want to special-order the pieces with pre-drilled holes, you can take standard 2X4 bricks and screw tiny eyehooks into them. The minifig is optional, but wholeheartedly recommended.

The keys, attached to the small bricks, join conveniently to the base pieces on the wall. One of the best ways to use this system is to attach one key to each of the Lego piece key rings, then on your way out grab only the keys you need. Attach the key rings together to create a custom cluster of keys and leave the unnecessary ones at home.

The post Brilliant Key Ring Solution Makes Putting Things Away Fun first appeared on Gajitz.

When you really think about it, the key is sort of an archaic thing. It’s just a shaped piece of metal that interacts with other pieces of metal to secure our doors, desks, cars and other important stuff. These three awesome inventions could make that archaic bit of metal totally obsolete.

UniKey

The UniKey is an app and a dedicated lock that offers unprecedented flexibility and freedom. Instead of carrying around a key, the lock opens with an app on your iPhone, Blackberry or Android phone. The lock gets the signal from your phone as you approach, then all you have to do is touch the lock to open it. Temporary codes can be created for visiting friends, then deactivated when their visit is over.

Visitor codes can even be set to work only at certain times or on certain days, and any keys given out can be revoked at any time. The special lock also comes with a physical key just in case you get home and find your phone is dead. And if you don’t have a smartphone at all, a Bluetooth fob – kind of like the one that unlocks your car doors – can be used instead.

Grabit

Grabit works without the need to carry anything extra at all. It is a door handle that incorporates a fingerprint scanner, but in a slightly different – and much improved – manner compared to existing fingerprint scanning door locks.

Instead of holding up a finger to be scanned and then reaching down to open the door, the Grabit lets you open the door in one fluid movement by placing the scanner on the handle itself. You grab the handle in a natural motion and it reads your fingerprint, then instantly unlocks for you.

“Skeleton” Key

An AT&T Labs concept would use the human body itself to open locked doors. The system would use piezoelectric transducers embedded in smartphones or wristwatches to communicate with receivers in door handles. The signal would be transmitted through the human skeleton itself. Due to differences in size and density, each skeleton would transmit signals differently – so if the right signal is transmitted through the right skeleton, the door will open like magic.

The post Key Killers: 3 Gadgets That Will Make Your Keyring Obsolete first appeared on Gajitz.

Broken and chipped fingernails definitely aren’t the worst things that can happen to a person. But they’re annoying enough to make us dread having to fumble with key rings. Especially in the middle of winter when we take the car key off of the ring every morning to warm up the car before heading out, we start dreaming of a better design to hold our keys together.

The Free Key is a brilliantly simple upgrade to the standard key ring design. It features three layers of metal, with the middle layer having a small bump. You push the top layer down over this bump to give the metal some leverage. The end of the key ring then lifts up easily, giving you room to slip your key right in there with no need to involve your poor fingernails at all.

What’s really freaky about Free Key is the fact that it is quite expensive. It’s €8 (or around $11 US) for the main key ring and three small removable rings. Still, if you find yourself always adding and removing keys to your ring it just might be worth the money to ease that constant frustration.

The post Key Ring Opens With a Simple Touch, Saves Your Fingernails first appeared on Gajitz.

Is that a bunch of keys in your pocket or are you just happy to see us? You know, that huge ring of keys you stubbornly jam into your jeans pocket every day isn’t attractive and it’s kind of dangerous. But for this problem, just like for most other problems, there’s a solution that can not only make your life easier but substantially increase your geek cred.

Keyport is a snazzy little gadget that eliminates the keyring full of sharp, pointy keys and replaces it with a sleek metal box that holds up to six keys. Gone are the traditional key heads, replaced with simple key “blades” that slide out when you need them.

If you don’t have six keys to replace or just want to up the geek quotient a little, you can substitute other inserts for some of the keys. We particularly dig the slide-out flash drive, but you also have a choice between an LED flashlight, bottle opener and store rewards cards. Of course, the metal box of keys in your pocket won’t actually cut down on much bulk, but at least you’ll stop jingling when you walk.

The post Silence the Jangly Beast: Customizable Keychain Alternative first appeared on Gajitz.