Tost Corp replaces the classic doorbell with a QR code connected to your mobile
Ding Dong, ding dong. Who has not found themselves one day in front of a locked front door, despite the repeated ringing of the doorbell. This is the daily lot of thousands of delivery people in France, who are sometimes distributed in need. Inside the house, the occupant is often absent, sometimes online, unable to open the door, or does not want to be disturbed.
Some have decided to equip themselves with connected doorbells video surveillance camera equipment overlooking the street and which allows remote viewing and exchange, from anywhere, with whoever is behind the door. But these devices provide for the installation of a device equipped with a camera and usually cost more than 200 euros. And it is rarely used in collective housing.
Of them Toulouseforming the society “Tost Corp”, specializing in connected objects, had the idea of simplifying this device and making it accessible to everyone, minus the intrusive side. “Today, everyone has a smartphone in their pocket and they are all equipped with a QR code reading system,” explains Gilles Tost, who planned this QRing solution with his twin brother, Frédéric.
Based on this observation, they have published specific QR codes, which replace the doorbells. Visitors scan it, like they would a menu in a restaurant, and a link opens. At the other end “of the wire”, the occupant of the house, who has downloaded an application, receives an alert and can “chat” with the delivery person or even neighbors or friends present in front of his home.
No battery or video system
“The person, who is busy at home, or at the office, can tell his interlocutor to drop off the package in the garden or tell a local resident to iron. Often, people need to know that the person has passed, to have an exchange with them. Pre-defined chat responses have been developed, which, as it becomes available, could presumably. When it comes to companies, for example, we can have the opening hours, especially when their customers are wondering in front of a closed door”, continues Gilles Tost, who put forward the practical side, but also ecological of this device which requires neither battery nor video system, often polluting to produce.
The company markets its QRing at 12.8 euros (shipping included) and just requires sticking the weatherproof QR code on his mailbox and downloading the application that goes with it, only on Android for now. For companies or large houses with multiple entrances, it is possible to buy them in several copies. And there is no need to renew a subscription every year. The company is counting on 1,000 sales in the first year, with the ambition of reaching professionals, in particular traders, who “could thus maintain a link with their customers in their absence”, suggests Gilles Tost.