Getting a key into a keyhole can be tricky when it is dark. Also if one is in a rush, inebriated, distracted, or even if not.

I suggest the keyhole funnel that helps guide the key into the keyhole. The surface of the funnel could have ridges and grooves that correspond to the ridges and grooves on the key.
-- xaviergisz, Mar 19 2014

V Lock http://www.yankodes...-miss-the-key-hole/
Just a concept [ytk, Mar 20 2014]

I think the grooves and ridges might get hit by the law of unintended consequences, but if the slot quickly constrained the key laterally, and then vertically toward the end, it should work. (The other dimension / degree of freedom should be feeloutable by all but the very drunk.)
-- skoomphemph, Mar 20 2014


Quite a lot of Yale-type keyholes have a funnel shape like this, perhaps 5mm out and 5mm deep, to do exactly what you say.

However it could be more widespread; one of the doors I regularly unlock has a very complex key in a tight fitting keyhole with flush surface, on a door that is recessed into a deep frame at an angle behind a pillar in a dark corner of a large ill-lit room. Fun and games every single time.
-- pocmloc, Mar 20 2014


I've seen this concept before (link).
-- ytk, Mar 20 2014


call them "thighs"?
-- sophocles, Mar 20 2014


My idea is similar to the Yale-type keyhole, but I was thinking a more exaggerated funnel; deeper and wider.

The V Lock concept is interesting and fits into my brief description, but is actually a bit different.

sophocles, I set that up in the first two sentences didn't I? You sly dog.
-- xaviergisz, Mar 20 2014


xavier: yupyup. I'm going to post a new silly idea based on that inneundo
-- sophocles, Mar 20 2014



random, halfbakery