Meet Haven: the smart lock that can withstand a battering ram

October 21, 2024

In news that we’re sure drug lords and mafia kingpins the world over will be thrilled to hear, Nashville-based startup Haven has just introduced a new type of door lock — one that apparently can’t be bashed in SWAT-style with a battering ram, or picked/bumped like a normal lock. Unlike traditional door locks and deadbolts that secure your door the to frame with a narrow bolt, Haven is anchored to the floor, and keeps your door from opening by way of a sturdy pop-up backstop that spans almost the entire width of the jamb. With this stronger anchor and broader stopping mechanism, this design is apparently far more difficult to break or bypass in any way.

That being said, since Haven’s design doesn’t reach through to the outside of the door like a traditional lock, you also can’t open it like a normal lock — it doesn’t have any way to accept keys. Instead, Haven utilizes the extra space in its body to house both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi radios. By detecting the short-range Bluetooth signature of your phone, the lock can sense when you’re approaching the door and open automatically for you and your family, whereas the device’s constant Wi-Fi connection allows you to open/close the lock remotely using the accompanying Haven smartphone app.

Also under the hood you’ll find a two lithium-ion batteries (one works as backup), as well as a physical foot-switch that allows you to activate/deactivate the lock manually without bending over or pulling out your smartphone. Additionally, Haven has promised that the finished product will be compatible with Apple HomeKit and Nest’s new Developer Program, so if/when it’s released, the lock will be able to interact with other smart home devices in your house.

To help fund the first full-scale production run, Haven’s creators have turned to the crowdfunding community on Kickstarter, where they hope to raise $150K over the course of the next month. If you back the project now, you can lock one down for. about 200-250 bucks, which isn’t much more than you’d pay for any other smart lock. If all goes as planned, they hope to ship the first production models to backers as early as August 2015.

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