Contactless Lock

The insight: in any public bathroom, every touchpoint is becoming contactless. Taps. Flushes. Hand dryers. Soap dispensers. But there's one thing you will always touch — the lock. You have to lock the door. That hasn't been solved.

This project started from a design brief about improving the public bathroom experience. Through user research we found that women have many more touchpoints with bathroom surfaces — and go out of their way to avoid contact.

We designed and built a contactless door lock that maintains privacy without requiring physical contact. The research became the foundation for the women's safety work that followed in Trippl.

Below is an early MVP — battery-powered, mounted on a wooden prototype. Touch the sensor, the bolt retracts. It's rough, but it works.