The TEO smart lock is a week into its Kickstarter campaign. If the TEO's creator, OckCorp, succeeds in raising the $165,000 CAD ($151,000 US) it's requesting to manufacture the device, it won't be the world's first smart lock. The TEO is joined in the field by, among others, the Lockitron, the Kevo, the Goji Smart Lock, the OKIDOKEYS, and the beautiful August. But where those devices are designed to fit around existing deadbolts to secure your doors, the Teo is more versatile: it's a Bluetooth padlock you can unlock with your smartphone.

TEO's inventor, Gord Duncan, tells Apple Insider that he came up with the idea while renting an SUV in Costa Rica. "Deathly afraid" he was going to lose the keys to the vehicle, he thought of a carabiner the user could lock. The result of his paranoia is a padlock that users will be able to open and close using a dedicated TEO app on their iOS smartphones (OckCorp says Android support is planned). Multiple TEO padlocks can be opened from the same app using Bluetooth, and the owner of the locks can also send permission — the "keys" — to other app users. Those users can be given access on a one-time basis, for a set period of time, or forever. The app itself, OckCorp says, will also include a host of features such as location information and an alarm.

If Duncan's Kickstarter is successful, he's planning to send the first models out in December. OckCorp's page acknowledges a few roadblocks — the TEO is still reliant on batteries — but Duncan's confident in the usefulness of his product. "At the end of the day, it is a lock," he tells Apple Insider. "It has to do what a lock does really well."