A Hackerspace in Germany was proud of its smartphone-activated door lock.
I was less impressed on their open house event when I saw firsthand how they struggled to open it for several minutes (with no mechanical override on the inside!), while dozens of guests were there.
When I voiced my safety concerns they simply didn't seem to understand. I mean it's just a fun hack, right?
In British, I never knew what they were called ("those 'Push Bar To Open' things on fire doors"), apparently "panic bar". As Wikipedia[1] says, "In Europe, the use of panic bars is generally confined to code required applications. On the other hand, in US and Canadian commercial building design panic bars are frequently used even when not required by code."
The only place I see them is designated emergency exits, the type which are normally unopenable from outside and often alarmed. The main doors leading out of a large auditorium don't use them – these don't need to lock, so they use free-swinging doors. The emergency doors at the front/side would use them.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Oakland_warehouse_fire#Cr...
Also that's crazy about that smart door... Pretty sure that's against fire code if it's one of the only exits. Ignorance isn't an excuse when other people's lives are concerned, either.
I think you guys are just talking past eachother due to a disparity of definitions, and otherwise are actually in agreement.