Use your cellphone to lock the hotel room

Travelers at a hotel in Stockholm could use a cell phone instead of a key or magnetic card to open the door. This is the new test of Assa Abloy AB, the world's largest lock manufacturer.

Use a mobile phone with a radio chip to open the door.

Assa Abloy AB 's new technology has been piloted at the Clarion Hotel in Stockholm by lending customers mobile phones with short-range radio chips, similar to those used to pay for gas station, to close the room door.

After 4 months of testing, the customer's phone is activated as a " key " and they can check in to the hotel by phone before arrival. After that, they can skip the registration process at the reception desk and unlock the door by having the phone next door.

Short-range radio technology, also known as Near Field Communication (NFC), is expected to be integrated into smartphones in the coming years. That's also the idea to support ticket sales and card payments. Assa Abloy said it wants to test the system fully before it is widely available in hotels, commercial buildings and other homes.

Greer Johansson , a telecommunications analyst at Redeye Research, said NFC is a " hot " technology in the mobile phone market. However, so far there are some models that are incorporated and will take several years before it is widely used.

" It's not just a matter of integrating technology into your phone that you need people to read it. There are many companies that are focusing on this technology so it will take a while for it to get better. "said Greger Johansson.

Assa Abloy mobile key manager Daniel Berg acknowledged that test participants may find the addition of a cell phone quite cumbersome. But once the user integrates that technology into his phone, the phone saves the subscription time to the charger and improves security because of access information from a lost phone. can be recovered from afar.

Although new phone technology can be incorporated with radio locks, however, hotels can still issue an open card for travelers who have not applied new technology to their phones.