In this modern digital world, everyone wants to protect his/her home, and there are plenty of door locks available in the market. But people with visual imparities have to struggle a lot, whether it is a smart lock or some kind of padlock. Voice-controlled door locks or fingerprint sensor door locks are beneficial for them, but these products cannot be used everywhere.
To find a viable solution, Byoung-Keuk Kim a student of Konkuk University, South Korea has designed Swing Door Lock with a flexible handle that can be moved up or down to point numbers and match the number combination set by the user. It is inspired by the opening mechanism of a safe to ease blind persons in locking or unlocking the door.
This unique door lock concept is focused on integrating a number pad on the handle, and this way the whole functionality depends on the movements of the handle. The Swing Door Lock activates as a person’s hand touches the handle. As the user pulls the handle, the door lock is activated for up and down movement, and the user can slide the handle to enter the passcode for unlocking the door.
People with visual impairment just have to reach the handle and unlock the door without any difficulties by moving the handle up or down. Kim has won a bronze award at spring round of Spark Design Awards 2016 for Swing Door Lock. This innovative door lock is also the winner of K-Design award 2016.
