Tapo’s palm-scanning door lock promises a full year of battery life

Tapo is the latest brand trying to let you open your front door with just a wave of your palm. The company announced the PalmKey smart door lock today, which lets you enter the house with a PIN, a fingerprint, or a palm scan.

The palm scanner requires your hand to be roughly four to 10 inches away from the reader, and according to Tapo, it’ll work if your hand is wet or dirty or if you have worn-down fingerprints. The system allegedly uses AI to assess the vein patterns within your palm.

Tapo’s lock has a removable, rechargeable 10,000mAh battery that’s supposed to last a full year on a charge, which should make upkeep fairly low-effort. There’s also support for a physical key backup, according to the press release, though Tapo didn’t detail where that sits on the unit. It also works with Alexa, SmartThings, and Google Home.

Details are limited beyond that — Tapo didn’t share pricing or a release date.

Palm scanning is one of the newer trends we’re seeing in smart locks. Philips already has a palm-scanning model on sale, and Eufy announced a model in December. What this Tapo model misses out on is some of the truly hands-free tech that’s likely to start hitting the market this year. Those locks will rely on ultra wideband in your smartphone to automatically open the door when they sense you’re approaching, no need to raise your hand at all.