At the upcoming CES 2026, tech company Lockin will unveil two smart locks—the Veno Pro Wireless and the flagship V7 Max—that draw continuous power from a palm-sized wall module that beams invisible infrared light. No batteries to swap, no charging cables, just a steady stream of photons that keeps the deadbolt alive as long as the emitter has mains power.
Innovative Power Technology
The separate emitter can sit up to four metres from the V7 Max (three metres for the Veno Pro), sending a 1 550 nm infrared carrier that a GaAs photovoltaic array inside the lock converts to trickles of electricity. A super-capacitor stores enough surplus to survive short blackouts, but the maths is simple: if the emitter is plugged in, the lock works. Early tests show the system delivering 200 mW at the receiver—enough to power the motor, biometric sensors and a low-power Wi-Fi 6 radio.
Because the locks never need disposable cells, they sidestep the EU’s forthcoming 2027 eco-design rules that will levy fees on battery-powered IoT devices that fall below 80 % recyclability. Installers also eliminate the single biggest service call: dead batteries in minus-20 °C winters when alkaline cells collapse.
Advanced Biometric Authentication
The V7 Max adds palm-vein scanning, finger-vein scanning and 3-D structured-light face unlock. Vein patterns sit 5 mm under the skin, so a printed photo or lifted fingerprint cannot fool the sensor. Templates are stored in a RISC-V secure element that never exports raw images, even during firmware updates. Dual 5-inch touchscreens and cameras on both sides of the door let residents see and record visitors without opening up.
Users can enrol up to 100 vein templates and 50 face profiles; the lock decides on the fly which modality is clearest—handy when a courier arrives at dusk wearing gloves. Recognition speed: 0.4 seconds at 99.97 % accuracy according to Lockin’s NIST-compliant testing lab.
Market Impact and Availability
Pre-orders open the day after the CES press conference; shipping starts in March. Retail prices: US$329 for the Veno Pro Wireless and US$479 for the V7 Max, emitter included. A subscription-free cloud tier stores 30 days of encrypted logs; optional paid tiers extend retention and add AI person-labeling.
Analysts at Counterpoint Research predict the infrared power category will reach 8 % of global smart-lock shipments by 2028, shaving US$120 million annually off battery-replacement service revenue and diverting 600 metric tons of lithium from landfills.
Global Market Implications and Regional Adoption Patterns
In Jakarta and Manila, where high-rise condos rise 12 % a year, one corridor-mounted emitter can feed three V7 Max locks, cutting installation cost per door by 35 %. The EU’s 2027 Eco-Design for IoT directive will penalize non-recyclable batteries; Lockin’s batteryless design already meets the 80 % recyclability threshold, positioning the brand for Germany and the Nordics where consumers routinely pay 18 % premiums for sustainable hardware.
India’s average smart-lock price hovers around ₹19 000. Lockin will offer a subscription: ₹3 000 refundable deposit plus ₹199 per month for the emitter, mirroring the pay-as-you-go model that helped solar-LED kits reach 35 million rural homes. In the UAE, the V7 Max will ship with optional anodized bronze or mother-of-pearl faceplates aimed at luxury buyers ahead of Abu Dhabi’s 2027 World Expo.
| Region | 2025 Smart-Lock Penetration | Projected 2028 Penetration with IR Power | Key Barrier Removed |
|---|---|---|---|
| North America | 34 % | 52 % | Battery anxiety in -20 °C winters |
| Western Europe | 29 % | 48 % | E-waste compliance costs |
| Urban China | 41 % | 67 % | High-rise signal interference |
Security, Privacy and Regulatory Cross-Currents
India’s UIDAI classifies vein templates as sensitive biometric data, requiring on-device storage inside government-certified secure enclaves. Lockin’s RISC-V secure element keeps templates local and exports only signed authentication tokens. China’s 2025 Data Security Law, however, mandates cloud escrow for “high-risk” biometric devices, so Lockin will ship a separate firmware branch that syncs encrypted hashes to MIIT-approved servers while the Global Edition retains zero-knowledge architecture.
The European Court of Justice may rule this summer that continuous infrared illumination counts as “in-home surveillance”; if upheld, Lockin will throttle emitter duty cycles to 50 %, trimming range to 2.8 m—still adequate for most Berlin apartments. Insurers are paying attention: EIOPA’s 2025 consultation hints at 15 % premium discounts for cyber-hardened, maintenance-free locks.
Supply-Chain Resilience and the Infrared Ecosystem
GaAs VCSEL arrays—core to the emitter—have risen 22 % in price since 2024 thanks to 5G-laser demand. Lockin diversified sourcing to South-Korean-subsidized foundries and signed a take-or-pay deal with Italy’s ENEA for recycled GaAs, hedging against EU critical-raw-material quotas due in 2028.
The firm also open-licensed the 1550 nm protocol, spawning third-party accessories: smart peepholes, contactless doorbells and PoE-to-IR bridges that retrofit legacy intercoms. Indian startups incubated by NIDHI are already pairing IR receivers with ESP32 chips to build ₹999 battery-free smoke detectors, a spill-over that could lower rural fire-fatality rates, currently 27 % higher than urban averages.
Outlook: Toward a Battery-Free IoT Belt and Road
Lockin’s infrared power play is less a product line than a hedge against the 45 % lithium supply shortfall projected for 2029. By decoupling IoT growth from cobalt-based batteries and licensing the emitter protocol royalty-free, the company replicates the cross-brand compatibility that made Qi wireless charging ubiquitous, but without the rare-earth geopolitics. Expect Nairobi airports to retrofit boarding gates, São Paulo co-working spaces to sell subscription-based access, and UN field offices in conflict zones to swap padlocks for IR-powered cylinders where grid power is erratic. If Lockin can keep its firmware branches to two—one for China’s data-sovereignty rules and one for the rest of the world—the Veno Pro Wireless and V7 Max could become the default infrastructure for a truly sustainable, maintenance-free smart-city fabric, one photon at a time.
