As if we didn’t have enough to fear with the thought of lockpicks breaking into our homes, researchers at the National University of Singapore have revealed that by using a smartphone to record the sound of a key in a lock, thieves have all the information they need to make a working duplicate.

The research team found that the sounds made by the key as it hits specific pins, along with the timing of these sounds, within a tumbler lock can be reverse-engineered to determine the shape of the key, or at the very least a close match.

Thankfully, the technique isn’t completely foolproof. The SpiKey software requires a key to be inserted into a lock at a constant speed for the sound to be successfully analyzed and reverse-engineered.

Source: https://interestingengineering.com/how-thieves-can-copy-a-key-by-recording-its-sound