Show HN: Chui – The World's Most Intelligent Doorbell | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: Chui – The World's Most Intelligent Doorbell

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26 pointsnickfrost42 comments

The first thing I thought of when I saw this was the doorbell scene from Ferris Bueller's Day Off: http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/video/282975/Ferris-Bueller-s-D...

Seriously though, I like the idea but what happens if someone holds up a photo of a friend or family member who's face automatically unlocks the door? It would be pretty easy to get a suitable image from a Facebook profile, for example.

In fairness, technology that can reliably tell subtle differences between faces should be adaptable to differentiate between a face and a static image of a face that doesn't even blink never mind change expression (though I suppose you could still fool it with a high res video...). They also mention the option of passcodes as an additional security level. These could still be compromised of course, but so can actual keys.

Personally I'll stick with keys for actually letting people in, but the ability to see who's visiting when I'm out, and leave them automated messages if I'm busy would be neat.

Can't help thinking there's a novelty market for a simple stripped down version that lacks the long range connectivity but simply uses the facial recognition to trigger different cheesy ring tones to identify different friends and family members.

It'd be nice if it used low-power BT or NFC.

  > Chui is registered to your account and can only work with our web application.
  > You're prompted to approve if someone tries to register it to another account,
  > effectively rendering any stolen Chuis useless. No information is accessible on
  > any stolen Chui

How do you achieve this? From your video it looks like Chui is based on a stock Raspberry Pi - what prevents me from using another SD card or altering the information on the SD card (the 'registration' stuff)?

Another question out of personal interest: When I cut off the power off my Raspberries without shutting them down, the filesystem is often left corrupted and the Pi refuses to boot. Did you manage to find a solution for this? Is there something like a 'mini UPS' out there that stores just enough power to securely shut down the Pi?

I'm using a Pi as a server for my hacked-together home automation. It seems to run ext4 and hasn't corrupted in the face of frequent power-offs. Out of curiosity, was there anything special about your setup? Did you track the corruption down to anything specific or was it just random?

Mine are also running ext4. I haven't investigated it too much, but it happened 2-3 times during development (quite frustrating when you haven't backed it up for a while).

On another project we're running 30 Pis simultaneously and before we told the operators to shut them down properly each evening we had at least one corruption a week (which wasn't too much of a problem since we always had some provisioned cards on hand).

There seems to be an UPS solution for the Pi already [1].

[1] http://www.piups.net/

Has anyone run independent hardware and software tests on devices like this and Lockitron? Are the services open-source?

I just find the whole idea of remote locks to be disturbing. And yes, that even extends to keyless entry on cars. I'm just a Luddite that way.

Just as evolution doesn't judge by anything other than success (a cockroach is arguably more "evolved" than a human), neither should technology. A simple mechanical twist-bolt happens to have significant technological feature advantages over a fancy mobile-enabled whatsit, even if it's lacking in other areas.

You pays your money, you takes your chances. :)

Sometimes dumber is better.

Strikes me that a simpler product might be more attractive: i) a doorbell you can switch off when you don't want to be disturbed ii) a lock you can control with your phone.

As soon as it interfaces with a lock, you're talking about a high degree of mechanical complexity and hassle to install, at which point you might as well chase the high end of the market with every bell and whistle possible.

Just because the tech is complex doesn't mean the customer proposition or feature set should be.

> Have an annoying friend or neighbor that always shows up unannounced. Add him to the do not disturb list and Chui will not even bother you with a notification (or a doorbell chime if wired).

If I do not hear a doorbell chime from within the house when I press a doorbell button, I fall back to pounding on the door. Their "do not disturb" feature should have an option to sound a low volume chime near the door, just loud enough to convince the person at the door that the doorbell is working.

> Don’t want Chui to simply be triggered via button press. No problem, Chui can be triggered via Motion Detection and Face Detection. Whereby the presence of a face or motion will prompt it to take a photo and make deliver a notification.

It would be fun to go beyond simple motion detection and recognize gestures, so I could allow my friends automatic entry, provided they do a Klingon salute.

I love the idea, liking the design so far, and wanted to back it. However, $200 for this seems way too steep. I feel the same way about the Lockitron ($179). Granted, I live in a 900 sq. ft. apartment and not a multi-level house with backyard, etc., but spending almost $200 so I don't have to get up from my couch to see who is at the door is asking too much.

Like I said, I love this idea and I want to back it, but I can't commit that much cash to it (I realize you are only charged when it ships). At that price, the market is too niche (people with physical disabilities, large houses, or just large wallets) and I can't see this succeeding for long.

I agree with you, it's cool but there's no way I could justify it. However, I think Lockitron offers more utility than this and, assuming I was allowed to install my own locks, I could see myself potentially using it

Hell, it'd be cheaper and probably less confusing to visitors for you to just yell from the couch.

Chui is also beneficial while you're away. If you're expecting to be occupied you can have Chui deliver messages for your. You don't require your visitor to have a certain kind of smartphone to work with your lock, and it can make your home more intelligent(ex: recognizing when you get back and automating certain tasks.)

Still requires having previously dropped the dough to get a smarklock. Given that Lokitron lets you remotely unlock/lock, it saves you the ~$200 this costs and only takes a simple SMS if the person doesn't have a smartphone

yes, but lockitron doesn't tell you who's at your door nor does it allow you to communicate with them...

Not an excuse, but it's hard for a startup to hit the price that we'd expect a large manufacturer to. Still, their challenge is to find an audience that sees value at the price, and I agree with you, that's not necessarily you or I.

What happens if you cut the wire?

https://s3.amazonaws.com/crowdhoster/chui/uploads/ckeditor/p...

Chui is supposed to be wired into your doorbell which would render that impossible. And if you're using it for monitoring then you've set to be triggered by motion and it would notify you prior to such action.

Chui dies a horrible death

This feature set is very cool!

I personally would not install a device that requires a 3rd party to function when the functionality should be on my own computer, but other people may not feel that way.

One issue is that it doesn't look like a doorbell - people aren't going to find it to press it. Make the button stick out more and light it.

Powering it is going to be tough for people. Make sure the wire to power it has a VERY tiny connector, so you can drill a very small hole in the wall and feed the wire.

But I'm pretty impressed with the idea.

Chui runs depth detection to prevent pictures from being used!

Get a prototype to the Cambridge University Computer Lab, we'll break it.

Out of curiosity, how do you break depth detection?

I'm guessing the same way you break it in humans. Like this:

http://www.davidairey.com/anamorphosis-and-the-art-of-chalk-...

These don't work if you have two eyes and are close to them.

Paper face mask printed with a color photo of an authorized user, with a hole cut out for the nose, according to [1].

Of course, breaking a window is probably less bother.

[1] http://www.ipc.on.ca/images/Resources/cons-bio.pdf‎

Hmm, that's interesting, thanks. Link is down, though.

<Mission Impossible theme>

3D printing?

This looks similar to August: http://www.august.com/

All products that are pretty much laughable in terms of security. These companies have huge liability in case of robbery.

If I cut the power, wouldn't it defeat to have the most intelligent doorbell?

Seems very easy to steal. and 200$?

I'll buy mine second-hand at the black-market ;)

I would love to know where the name comes from.

Personal vested interest.

the name is Swahili for leopard, the most adaptable animal, our goal for Chui is to adapt and function in a variety of environments, so the word Chui bears the most apt connotation... It also symbolizes our background as self taught engineers coming from completely different backgrounds!

I believe it's Japanese for "attention!" or "warning!"

or "leopard" in Swahili, or various words in Mandarin, or a tiny town in Brazil...

I feel obligated to throw in that it's also my surname.

Maybe someday Google will buy Chui for $1B.

"Don't want to deal with breaking up with your emotional boyfriend?"

Quick someone submit a pull request to fix their gendered language.

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