Smart door lock gives access to delivery person

Some might find the idea of in-home delivery a bit alarming. A Sweden-based company, Glue, wants this to be the future of grocery shopping, though. The company has developed a smart lock and accompanying platform that allows people to grant access to preapproved individuals so groceries can be dropped off in their refrigerators.

The service works with PostNord, a communications and logistics company, and ICA, Sweden's largest grocery chain, according to Digital Trends. Glue's service allows users to order groceries from ICA and have a PostNord delivery person pick them up. The Glue app allows users to permanently or temporarily give a delivery person a digital key that will allow them to open the door at specified times using Glue's smart lock. The resident is also notified when the door has been unlocked.

Security is the biggest growth area spurring smart home adoption, so Glue is on the right track with its smart lock. Sweden’s market might be more trusting of allowing strangers into their homes for grocery delivery, though. The service does allow users to approve specific individuals they are comfortable with. Additionally, with the growth of both e-commerce and smart homes, it is easy to imagine a future in which people want things like grocery shopping to be more automated. There are now smart refrigerators that can recognize when users run out of a specific product. Amazon is also already building its Dash service into third-party products in a push to automate a lot of repetitive shopping for consumers.

While services like these are good for consumers in the long run, many manufacturers may be left out until open connectivity and platform standards are established for smart home products. China manufacturers especially rely on open standards like ZigBee and Z-Wave, which can already be found in smart locks coming from China.