Keychains… the Rat Kings of our culture
I only carry about eight keys as part of my daily life, which is pretty small compared to the hip-jarring collections I see other people lugging about. Still, I resent all eight of the keys I carry. I’ve seen key wallets and what not, but they mostly just increase the bulk of carrying keys while simply concealing and silencing the keys themselves. Carrying your keys on your belt with one of those retractable spools is a monstrosity imho.
I am well aware of the movement to replace keys with RFID or biometric systems, but let’s face it, between work, government, home and miscellaneous, that’s not going to be practical for most of us (good luck on getting that biometric office desk drawer).
I love the way Volkswagon addresses the remote entry/alarm/key but that’s just one key. Wouldn’t it be great if you had a swiss army knife device that held all your keys? Key blanks/templates would have to be a bit more standardized and easy to add/remove.
As long as I’m brainstorming, let’s talk total key fantasy… a shape-shifting nanite key that copies other keys it is exposed to and stores those imprints for later use. Of course, that opens up some interesting nefarious uses, like “soap block pressing” keys from yesteryear. Not to mention by the time we have nanites running around capable of cloning shapes on a macro scale, traditional locks will probably be charming antiques.
Maybe I’ll cannibalize an old/cheap swiss army knife casing and Dremel down some copies of my keys and see what happens. I’m sure the “good” folks of the TSA will love the results the next time I pass through airport security.
That’s a makeblog project I’d not only like to see, but invest in. Remind me to give you a couple of bucks for key copies next time I see you.
“Key blanks/templates would have to be a bit more standardized and easy to add/remove”
Of course, they’d be a lot easier to pick, too :).
I carry 15 keys on my everyday keychain. It’s on a carabiner that I attach to one of my beltloops. These are the keys that I use on a daily basis. I also have several other keychains that are for specific places, like clients that I go to that I have keys to their various buildings. It doesn’t much bother me, though, when I’m running and my keys are on me, I just hold them to my side if I’m worried about them making noise.
Fifteen!? Ok, you may need a special innovation. Something like a key bandoleer. 🙂