Door entry systems and methods

Abstract

Various implementations include systems and methods for unlocking a door to a building on behalf of a tenant of the building that addresses the shortcomings of legacy telephone entry systems and allows for more efficient and safer management of building entry requests from third parties. In some implementations, the system taps into the legacy telephone entry systems to communicate with third parties seeking entry into the building. In some implementations, the system communicates with third party computing devices (e.g., stationary or mobile devices) to process entry requests. And, in some implementations, the system communicates entry preferences (or parameters) associated with a tenant with a door lock system to allow for entry during certain time windows or under certain conditions.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION[0001]This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62 / 281,763, which is titled “Door Entry Systems and Methods,” and was filed on Jan. 22, 2016, the content of which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety.BACKGROUND[0002]Legacy telephone entry systems for multi-unit buildings were designed decades ago to enable building tenants to communicate with visitors and remotely unlock a building door. These archaic systems provide a telephone connection between visitors at building doors outside and tenants inside their units. However, the systems are not equipped to verify a visitor's identity, which can compromise the security of the building. Also, the systems require a tenant to remotely unlock the door at the moment requested by the visitor, which keeps legitimate visitors from being able to enter the building with the tenant is unavailable or unreachable. Furthermore, the systems do not provide a record o...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

This patent describes a system and method for unlocking doors for building tenants that solves the problems of older phone entry systems. The system can communicate with both stationary and mobile devices to process entry requests, and can also communicate with the tenant's door lock system to allow for safer and more efficient building entry.

Problems solved by technology

However, the systems are not equipped to verify a visitor's identity, which can compromise the security of the building.

Also, the systems require a tenant to remotely unlock the door at the moment requested by the visitor, which keeps legitimate visitors from being able to enter the building with the tenant is unavailable or unreachable.

Furthermore, the systems do not provide a record of visitors that entered the building.

A number of recent trends have exposed the limitations of legacy telephone entry systems and created a significant pain point for building tenants.

First, there is an ongoing shift from brick-and-mortar retail shopping to online retail shopping that has resulted in an explosion of package deliveries.

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