One of my colleagues sits a few rows back from me, and I can always tell when he's walking down my row of cubes: The jingling of his massive keychain gets progressively louder, until he passes by. Personally, I keep two separate keychains, one for my personal keys and another for my office keys. I often wish there were a way to combine the two, but not wind up with a ton of keys I won't be able to fit into my pocket. The KeyPort Slide hopes to save us all from having to carry bulky sets of keys with us, whether those keys are for the house and the car, of the filing cabinet and office door.

The Slide is in development and currently only a concept design, but KeyPort is already taking reservations for it. Billed as the world's first universal key fob, the Slide will have built-in programmable RFID for use with smart-card devices, office doors, and cars that require programmable keyfobs. The Slide will also be compatible with cars whose manufacturers require their dealerships to cut the keys, and originals can be used with the Slide. Each of the slots at the bottom of the Slide will reportedly have either a blank key that can be cut to match an original, or can be fitted with the original key to your filing cabinet, front door, or office. The idea is that keys can be expanded or retracted into the body of the slide by pressing forward on the buttons on the top; simply slide forward the key you need to use, and slide it back when you no longer need it. KeyPort says the slide will have an LED and radio functions for car alarms and remote-start systems.

Since the project is still in the design phase, there's no word on pricing or a release date. Still, KeyPort must believe that they can make it happen if it's already taking preorders. Even so, that's a pretty hefty feature list for a device that looks like it will be relatively small. Also, I couldn't help but notice the disclaimer at the bottom of the Web page; "Pre-production model shown, actual product may vary." Looks like there's a lot of work to do, but I'll hold out hope I might be able to ditch my keychains sometime soon. [ via via ProductDose ]