CES 2020: Kwikset Announces New Biometric Smart Lock

With this year’s Consumer Electronics Show now underway in Las Vegas, another smart lock contender has entered the ring.

Kwikset has announced a new offering in its line of wifi-enabled Smart Locks, the Halo Touch. This device is differentiated from its other smart lock offerings through its use of biometric authentication, with the Halo Touch sporting an embedded fingerprint scanner.

While it’s being pitched for home use, the device can register up to 100 fingerprints, suggesting it may also find some market interest among small businesses. In any case, it also enables administrators to remotely monitor and control their Halo Touch locks through the Kwikset mobile app, available on both iOS and Android. And it features voice assistant integration with respect to the Google Home Assistant and Amazon Alexa platforms.

As for the security of the biometric data itself, Kwikset says the Halo Touch stores all fingerprint data locally, on the device. That means it can’t be intercepted from a remote server.

The Halo Touch is one of multiple biometric locks being showcased at this year’s CES, with others including Hampton’s new BenjiLock and offerings from Tapplock.

For its part, the Halo Touch is certified to Grade AAA by the Builders Hardware Manufacturers Association, and will be available through the online stores of Home Depot, Lowes, Amazon, and Build.com this year at an MSRP of $249.

The device is being showcased through Kwikset’s booth, #41142 at CES Tech West, Sands Expo. CES 2020 runs in Las Vegas from January 7th to 10th.

(Originally posted on Mobile ID World)