Smart access with mobile phone app

EMKA explained recently that their new 'EMKA mobile' app transforms a smartphone into a digital key for sophisticated and secure locking of cabinets and enclosures in the industrial/digital sphere and wider environments. In the future, this app will allow users to trace, manage, and access allocated handles with various permission levels determined by specified user profiles. This way, the app secures flexible, personalised access and supplements the range of available access options through its ingenious technologies.

To provide authorised personnel with digital access control, the company has developed a solution that utilises a smartphone application to unlock the handle. Currently, the app is compatible with their 'Agent E-BLE' swinghandle. The communication between the app and the handle is based on BLE.

Secure and convenient personalised access to the Agent-E handle has been achieved using RFID technology, so this new intuitive smartphone app provides a convenient way to operate the handle locking mechanism. Other locking solutions, such as the single-point locking and the outdoor swinghandle of their 1317 series, can also be opened via the app. Upon successful registration, the 'handle owner' will grant the user permission to use the app and to ensure continuing security, the user's identity is checked again each time before the handle is opened. Depending on the smartphone manufacturer, this may necessitate entering a PIN, activating a fingerprint sensor, or facial recognition. In the next step – depending on the authorisation level – a list of approved locks within range of the BLE signal is obtainable. Subsequently, the user selects the lock they want to open. The 'handle owner' can grant or revoke authorisations at any time. Access is further restricted by utilising a predetermined time frame.

After undergoing a predetermined testing phase, the new app has been used by a producer of transport boxes fitted with the EMKA single-point locking system. Merging the function of advanced locking technology and a user-friendly smartphone app creates a comprehensive, intelligent solution. The company pointed out that the development team designed this system specifically for business customers, OEMs and installers, who aim to improve their security technology or offer their clients fresh, innovative locking options.

With this app, each user's smartphone becomes a digital key that can always be used to operate locks in remote or otherwise vulnerable locations.