# the problem

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in my life at harvard, there is one annoyance that plagues me several times a day: opening my door. the problem is twofold:

first, i am a chronically forgetful person; i often leave my dorm without bringing my key, which presents an annoyance to my roommates/the buidling staff who have to let me in (a situation made even more embarassing on the occasions that i'm coming out of the shower and am... not wearing clothes).

second, even when i do take my key with me (which is, in and of itself, an annoyance. how are you supposed to carry around a single key? a keyring is overkill. but just carrying it around solo is a recipe for losing it), it's a hassle to — whenever i want to get into my room — have to put down whatever i'm holding, get the key out, open the door slightly, hold it with my shoulder, bend down to pick up whatever i was holding, and then enter the room.

# the constraints

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the most obvious solution to this problem would be, as i'm sure you have already begun to consider, to tape/prop/otherwise prevent the door from closing. for security reasons, this is not possible.

another obvious solution would be for me to stop forgetting my key. my roommates and i have already tried myriad strategies to do so (e.g. signage, classical conditioning), all of which have failed.

because we live in a dorm, we cannot make any physical alterations to the door, locking mechanism, hinges, etc. — so any device would have to not only be additive, but would have to be easily uninstalled at the end of the semester.

# the proposal

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i propose a kick pattern-activated lock mechanism.

it would consist of a vibration sensor placed on the lower third of the inside of the door. upon receiving the correct pattern of kicks, it would trigger a mechanism that would attach to the door handle and pull it downward, unlocking the door from the inside so that it could be easily pushed open from the outside.

a few notes:

- so as to not interfere with normal opening of the door, the door-opening mechanism should attach to the handle by a string

- having a kick trigger as opposed to hand-knocking trigger is meant to promote hands-free use. if this makes it difficult to gauge patterns accurately, this could be changed to a hand-knock trigger.