FŪZ Designs based in Draper, Utah has developed a water resistant padlock that doesn't require a physical key to open.

Instead, the Noke, pronounced "no-key," has an unlocking mechanism that uses Bluetooth on the user's smart device and that's triggered when the smartphone is nearby.

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Noke is the latest in a series of Bluetooth connected locks whose growing popularity is being powered by the rise of less power thirsty Bluetooth devices that run for a longer time on their batteries.

An example of a Bluetooth padlock is Bitlock, a smart bike lock that has a tracking and mapping feature.

There's also Lock8, a bike lock that won the 2013 Disrupt Europe battlefield contest in Berlin with its ambitious plan to create a peer-to-peer bicycle renting and sharing community based on the lock owner's capability to offer temporary digital keys.

There are also many smart locks designed for house doors such as Kevo, Goji, Genie and Lockitron.

Noke, which has yet to hit the market but which recently launched a crowd-funding campaign on Kickstarter, intends to be a straightforward and multipurpose smart lock.

Instead of focusing on a single kind of lock such as a bike lock or door lock, Noke could provide keyless entry to the user's shed, garage or locker.

The digital keys for unlocking the Noke will be provided by a Noke iOS or Anroid app. This app will customize the locks and grant access once, sometimes or permanently. The lock is compatible with smartphones and tablets that sport Bluetooth 4.0.

If the unlocking device's battery runs out or ends up missing, the smart lock can also be opened with a click code, based on a series of long and short presses on the Noke shaft.

The Noke could retail at US$89 when released, but interested consumers can pre-order the device for US$59.

TagsSmart Device, Tablet, smart phone, iPhone, Kickstarter