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 sometimes find themselves destitute. 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 equipped with video surveillance cameras overlooking the street and which allow remote viewing and communication, from anywhere, with whoever is behind the door. But these devices require the installation of a device equipped with a camera and usually cost more than 200 euros. And it is rarely used in collective housing.
Two Toulousians, forming the company “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 worked on 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 previously 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, no 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. We have developed predefined answers for the chat, which, as they are marketed, may evolve. 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 highlights the practical, but also ecological side of this device that 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.