Squelchtone wrote:They say that all good ideas have already been thought of.
Squelchtone
Yeah and they have been saying it for thousands of years. Its one of those sayings that tries to negate an idea while not recognizing that all good ideas are at one point the first time anyone ever thought them. People that think outside the box don't take it seriously. HYT, Forever Lock (I know about the foil, but it was a creative approach, the ill-fated Bowley.... At one point the sidebar was ground breaking.
Two things I've thought of that might work
1) creating pins that need to be pulled down instead of pushed up. A magnet in the key that overcomes one pulling up in the chamber. I know it's not fool-proof but it wouldn't lend itself to conventional methods
2) using something from Correlated Magnetics!!!. Polymagnets.com can be programmed so that the field is shaped. Not only can you shape the field, but a single side of the magnet has both poles in whatever pattern they are printed. Magpixels is the term I think. In one application a disk either attracts or rotates depending on how much it is spun on axis. The advantage is that you not only have repulsion or attraction, but you could also program a magnet to create a specific spacing.
Combine Spring and Latch magnets and you've go a new way to pin a lock
Sure most of it's been thought of before, but the magnet ideas of the past didn't have access to the same technology.