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Keyless Locking Mechanism with Joystick

Breakthrough:
A mechanical locking mechanism that gets unlocked by a combination of quick, single handed movement of button - joystick-like - without needing to look and at any code length.

Inventor:
Yehonatan Knoll, Israel

Financial reward:
$250,000

The Story:
Keyless Locking Mechanism with Joystick

The Motivation

During the two year period the Knoll family spent in Canada, Yehonatan Knoll, the inventor, was only twelve years of age. Yehonatan was surprised to discover that the school locker lock that gets unlocked up to twenty times a day and must be fast and convenient, opens very slowly, in a very cumbersome process. It especially bothered him while running to the playground during recess: "Whoever is delayed by the locker, to put his textbooks in and take out his sneakers, will not arrive at the playground on time". Yehonatan was enthusiastic about locks from a very young age and so the need, along with the hobby created the initiative.

Years later, when Yehonatan graduated from high school in Israel and went off to university to major in physics, he financed his studies working a part time job in a large industrial factory in the kibbutz. He worked for the maintenance department and again, encountered the problem of locks being cumbersome and slow to unlock. Once again he was surprised to find out that a lock, that must be opened many times a day and then relocked in order to protect the tools, requires removing the protective gloves, taking the lock key out of the pocket, opening the lock, locking the lock, returning the key back to the pocket and putting the protective gloves back on.

A long and very inconvenient process every time. This tiring procedure was a burden on the workshop employees and after two to three rounds of opening and closing the lock, they left the toolbox unlocked resulting in loss of tools.

Coincidentally, several more years have passed, and Yehonatan decided it is time to "Do something with this", mainly to enjoy revenues that would provide him with financial independence to develop ideas in the field of theoretical physics.

Yehonatan turned to his father, Yishai Knoll that apart from being an active composer had extensive experience in production management and R&D, mainly in the polycarbonate industry at Palram Industries, in order to manage the development of a revolutionary, fast and easy to open lock.

Yishai, who at the time enjoyed a year off from work to dedicate to musical composition (a Prime Minister Award) took on the challenge and agreed to manage the development project. Later Yishai said: "It was quite naive of me to think that a year or two of my life would suffice to get this project up and running".

Financing

"We went to meet a rich cousin to consult, and immediately, on the spot, he said: "I'm investing". Having a sum of $10,000, we created the prototype designed by Yehonatan using paper and pencil and a lot of erasers".

This first model was made of aluminum, and produced through machining processing. The prototype displayed all the functions: very fast opening, no eye contact, single handedly operated and by any chosen code length. It was clear that this was not an industrial prototype and it will take more money to finance the development of an industrial model. Displaying the model actually generated much interest among lock manufacturers; however none of the companies would undertake the challenge at this early development and non-industrial stage. However, the prototype was interesting enough to be able to raise just enough seed money to develop the Beta prototype and patent registration.

Developing the lock

"We had reached the conclusion that the mechanism is complex and that we should approach an engineering company and start working in an industrial form".
After a year the Beta prototype was ready. It was better looking, but not more industrial and there was a need for a revision in the mechanism design. Only at this time, Yehonatan "discovered" the correct mechanical solution.

"It was clear to us that the initial patent does not cover the development and that we would have to register a new patent. We managed to raise some more money".
The final model was built with a springs expert who immigrated to Israel from Kazakhstan, using various means of Rapid Prototyping and in improvised casting from the jewelry industry, eight models were built and with them began the business development process. "This stage was very long and expensive” says Yishai “and risked the essence of the project, as defined by Yehonatan; ‘financing the freedom to think’, and as defined by me; ‘financing the freedom to compose music’.

Business Development

"This stage too, was very long", says Yishai, "but it was clear that we have fully industrial models. Throughout the years we had contacts with more than a dozen American and European lock companies, but the most stable relationship, from the initial prototype, was with the largest combination lock Manufacturer in the world”. The company requested a fully industrial model at every stage of the development process. The Last prototype was to their satisfaction, hence began the negotiation towards an agreement.

Knollan's entire life cycle ranged between Yehonatan's motivation, his father’s, and the investors commitment to do business.

In other words; "between producing just enough income to producing maximum income". The investors had a profound enough understanding to Yehonatan's and Yishai's motivation. For many years, they have worked without receiving salary or an expense budget in order to avoid dilution of their holdings at Knollan. In retrospect, this of course served the investors as well and created a good co-understanding between all board members.

The business relationship with manufacturing company over the years, it too represents the unique balance between the "freedom to think and create" and business. "We have a fairly relaxed communication channel with the company, in order to establish long term cooperation".

"Today", says Yishai, "the Knollan lock is penetrating the American and European market for less than six months and selling fantastically. However, it is clear to us that this is just the beginning and we are just getting started, as we are developing additional applications that strengthen Knollen's advantage and offer: opening very fast, with one gloved hand, one finger, in darkness by any chosen code length applications.

"We know that there is high interest by people with eyesight deficiencies to find a lock with many applications and many others who could set a family code, such as grandma's phone number, that they will never forget even when their parents memory weakens, their kids will remind them of grandmother".

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