Living on the second floor means I have to run down to unlock my gate every time someone rings the bell; this turns out to be a great distraction for my workflow. What's the solution? Gatekeeper.
Gatekeeper is a smart and highly efficient well... gatekeeper. It is powered by 'NODE MCU ESP8266'and, of course- C++. Gatekeeper uses credit sized NFC cards to allows its holder to lock/unlock the gate; Nothing new yet. What is innovative is its carefully crafted design. Its magnetic base, together with its flexible wire support ensures that it can be placed in most of the gates in Indian household; that too in under 3 minutes (I checked). Its non-obtrusive design places no hindrance while manually operating the door handle.
Wait, there is more... Gatekeeper uses Telegram API to notify users about entries, exits and card usage. It is also capable of taking commands, for example- "/close" to close the gate. It significantly enhances its user-friendliness.
Still, need more? Gatekeeper has a battery backup that, when fully charged, lasts for a week. It was a fun little project that taught me safe integration of IoT and APIs.
I hope you like it.❤️