Patent ID: 8390448

Claim:
An apparatus for detecting a key insertion into a lock or a key removal from the lock, comprising: a movement sensing device attached to the key and configured to sense a translational movement of the key along the longitudinal axis of the key during the key movement in the lock by varying signals generated in time domain responsive to variations in the shape of the key as the key moves with translational motion in the lock; and a processing unit configured to process the varying signals, sensed by and received from said movement sensing device, by at least converting the variations of the signals to discrete digital pulses, wherein a key insertion or a key removal is determined based on at least one of configurable predefined parameters and programmable predefined parameters, the configurable and programmable parameters each comprising: the number of pulses, the number of digital pulses within a predefined period, a predefined maximal spacing between consecutive pulses, or any combination thereof, and wherein a differentiation between a key insertion and a key removal is determined by at least one of: detecting the phase difference between the corresponding sensed signals, memorizing the last insertion event such that subsequent signals are identified as a removal event, and a combination thereof.