Barcelona: When it comes to home automation, the first thing that people look at when entering an office or a home is the smart lock and how secure it is.
Currently, most of the smart locks are made of either plastic or aluminium and has to installed by a professional.
Now, a Korean start-up — Amadas — has developed a “do-it-yourself” universal compatible digital door lock, made of stainless steel that can be applied to any type of door from thickness between 30-80mm.
Park Eun-min, Amadas CEO and founder, said that the most salient feature of this product is “compatibility”. As the handle becomes the digital lock, it is possible to use the “existing locking device” to lock the door simply by replacing the handle and it is first of a kind in the world.
“The existing door lock can be turned into a smart lock with this device without damaging the door. The installation is so quick and can easily be done by anybody just by changing the handles of the existing door. All you need is a screwdriver,” she said.
Korean digital door lock technology is widely recognised around the world, and is more than 20 years old.
When asked about the idea behind producing the locking system, Park, having graduated from Seoul National University and majoring in metal craft, said that there has been a limit to expansion of the domestic and overseas market due to the fear of damaging the door and differences in specifications except for collective installation in apartments.
The lock also has an option to set PINs (personal identification numbers) for additional safety and all it needs is two AA batteries which can last for a year.
“The lock is hard and strong, fire resistant and can operate in wet weather. When the batteries are running low, a quick recharge can be done with light from any type of source such as smartphone flashlight, lanterns and lamp for 20 seconds as there is a solar cell at the end of the lock,” Park said.
The locks works on Bluetooth low energy and works with Android and Apple devices.
She said the company was started in 2014 with a capital of 500 million Korean won (Dh1.48 million). The research and development has been going on for eight years. The product will be launched in June.
The company is preparing various product groups including a custom-made jewellery lock by taking advantages of the properties of materials. The basic model costs $200.
As the entire product is made of stainless steel, she said the likelihood of failure due to “external shock” has been reduced. There is little fear that the product may be broken by external pressure.
“Intel is interested in our locking system and wants us to use their chips, but the cost will go up. We will look into it after launching the product,” she said.
The company is getting enquiries from real estate contractors, telecom operators from the Gulf and India for custom-made jewellery locks.
“Our plan is to sell 100,000 locks per year and the goal is to develop digital door locks that integrate with internet of Things using 3G and 5G technology with various designs to meet the growing needs of customers for diverse products,” Park said.
