Technology: Your Keys are no more Yours--It can be duplicated using Software

Who would have thought that this day would come when your keys can be copied exactly using a software?Well this is no more an impossible thing now as the scientists have made it possible.

There are expert locksmiths out there that can reproduce a key from high-resolution images, but new software developed by computer scientists at UC San Diego has simplified the process to a fearsome degree. In fact, their "Sneakey" system can reproduce a key with only a grainy cellphone image or, in one case, a picture taken from 200 feet away with a five-inch telephoto lens.

�The program is trouble-free. You have to click on the photo to tell it where the top of the key is, and a few other control points. From here, it normalizes the key�s size and position. Since each pixel then corresponds to a set distance, it can correctly guess the height of each of the key cuts,� explained Benjamin Laxton, the first author on the paper who recently earned his Master�s degree in computer science from UC San Diego.

The researchers have not released their code to the public, but they claim that anyone with a decent working knowledge of MatLab and computer vision techniques could create a similar system without much obscurity. Their suggestion: treat your keys like you would a credit card.

Thanks for giving us all one more thing to worry about guys. Hehe!!!