About

People who use public toilets in workplaces, restaurants, shopping malls, and airports feel uncomfortable when they use their fingers to open, close, lock, and unlock a shared toilet's door, as they have to touch handles, buttons, locks, switches and other germ-prone surfaces. Some people's discomfort is so intense that they wait until they return to their "safe" place.

Solution & Product

Our solution is ZEN Locks, a hands-free system that helps users enter, lock, unlock and exit a shared toilet without touching anything with their fingers. It consists of the following: a. A door opener that keeps the door balancing at a semi-open position for contactless entry and exit. b. A lock that combines the handle and the lock mechanism in a push button. Users push the button with their elbow to close and lock the door. To exit, users press the button momentarily, and the door opens automatically. c. An optional electronic system controls the lights, ventilation and other amenities with absolute accuracy.

Innovation & Scalability

The PCT examiner accepted our patent application, and we got a positive answer: Novelty (N) ttttYes: Claims 1-20 Inventive step (IS) tttYes: Claims 1-19 Industrial applicability (IA) ttYes: Claims 1-20 Our system fits in public toilets of offices, factories, shops, gyms, schools, restaurants, malls, museums, casinos, airports, transport stations, and other premises. The number of public toilets around the world is mind-blowing. There are millions of shared bathrooms around the globe. Covid-19 made people very cautious when touching. The value hypothesis assumes that our product will deliver value to our customers and that early adopters will find and embrace the product. The growth hypothesis states that our product will appeal to a small group of early adopters and find a more extensive market later. We have developed a minimal viable product to test our idea in the market. This minimal viable product (MVP) is as simple as possible. It contains only what is needed to give the customers a realistic experience of how our product works – just enough to draw helpful feedback from them. Many users tested our prototype, during an Innovation show, in Zappion Megaron organized by Greek Innovators Union. An astonishing 100% agreed that they prefer to use a toilet with our system than a normal one!

Traction & achievements

We have spent five years working hard on our inventions. We have applied our patent applications and paid thousands of euros for developing prototyping and protecting our intellectual property (lawyer and patent office fees). We have mastered the 3D design, and we have bought 3d printers for printing spare parts for the prototypes. We created functional prototypes for the ADAS system and ZEN Locks system. We created a website for the ADAS system and are preparing the website for ZEN Locks. We hired a top engineer, a Solidworks expert, to optimize the lock mechanism. We have designed the injection moulds. We finalized the design of metal spare parts that we will outsource at the beginning of our production. We calculated the Bill of Materials (BOM), proving that our system will be affordable. We participated in an innovation show and got encouraging feedback, as 100% of those who tried our prototype loved it.

Team & Why Us

Georgios Zafeirakis, age 28, is an Electrical Engineer (University of Patras). Until June, he will be studying Computer Science at KU Leuven. He is the inventor of a patented ADAS System (www.zafeirakis-adas.com) and created the electronics of the ZEN-Locks system. He has developed the local server that projects the menu to mobile devices in our www.wifi.menu platform. Eleni Zafeiraki, age 26, Civil Engineer (University of Patras) with two years of experience in buildings construction at HEINZ SA Elena is a co-inventor of ZEN Locks and an experienced 3D designer. She designed most parts for the locking and opening mechanisms. She was one of the first to offer 3D tour services to Greece's hospitality and real estate markets at www.3dTour.gr. Elena runs the wifi menu platform and the 3Dtour service. Nikolaos Zafirakis, age 59, studied Economics at Piraeus University and worked as an accountant for ten years. Then he ran his used car and real estate business for twenty-five years. Still, his talent is detecting and solving problems with innovative solutions. Nikos started the QR code and wifi restaurant menus six years ago, long before mobile devices implemented QR code scanners. He is a Co-Inventor of the Zen-Locks system. Pinelopi Fota, age 58, has a Business Administration degree from Piraeus University and has thirty years of working experience. Pinelopi is responsible for Accounting and Financial Services.

Funding Needs

There are two ways to market our product. 1. Find a strategic partner who already produces locks and has a sales network to work together. 2. Establish own production line Establishing a production line requires at least an assembly line and suppliers for the parts we have designed. The most realistic scenario is to buy the moulds we have designed and outsource the production of all parts. The cost to set up production and a basic sales department is at least 450.000