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Heres a key I found at the shop. I searched google for what type of lock it goes to, all I was able to find was that it's some sort of access control lock made by
kaba. Anyone have anymore information on what exactly it would operate?

Kaba Marlock? I believe. The black plastic blocks out IR light and only lets it through in certain points. Those points act like the biting.

Yep, looks like my Marlok key, made by Kaba/ Ilco. look for my post on mine. Used at hotels and dorms from what I've heard.

cut a hole in a piece of cardboard the shape of the keyblade or just a bit smaller, to block light, then in a dark place put the key over that hole and show a flashlight below the key and cardboard and tell us what you see

It should block all normal light because of the special plastic. He would need a IR light source such as a tv remote to see the holes.

The plastic is purple, you can see thru it, especially with a bright enough light like an LED or halogen. it's just more sensitive to IR.

I've seen this type of key used. It was programmable, I believe. I assumed it was magnetic, not IR, but you guys are the experts. But I still think it was programmable---maybe expose it to some light or chemical and alter what parts pass IR and which parts block it?

All the doors it went to battery operated---you'd stick this key in, and a light would shine green or red and if the light was green, you could then operate the door.

I've worked with one of these systems before, the locks are programmable via computer but as far as I've seen the keys aren't designed to be changeable. At least not without some improvised equipment and methods.

The locks can be programmed whether or not to recognize any particular key, and can be set to only recognize it during specific days or times so it can also be used for access control.

The descriptions by Phoneman and Riyame are pretty much accurate. The plastic is to obfuscate the location of the holes to make it harder to decode and make an improvised key, but you can see some visible light through it if you do what Rai suggested so the keys are decodable, but not without being obvious or having private access to the key for a short while.

I think they're becoming a bit obsolete, but if you wanted to be more discreet about decoding one I bet if you could get your hands on one of the locks you could write some custom software, maybe hook it up to an arduino, so all you'd have to do is get your hands on a key for a couple seconds and insert/remove it from your cylinder to get a quick read on the key. Or lacking one of the locks, cannibalize some IR sensors that can be found inside of some types of mechanical (ball) computer mouse, which read the light as it passes through slits in a wheel and use them to make a custom key reader.