On today's episode, “Opening Doors to Independence” with DOOR-E, the winner of the 2025 RESNA Developers’ Showcase IMPACT Award. We’re joined by creators Mike Soniat and Wayne Newitts to learn about DOOR-E, a truly portable, affordable, and installation-free door automation device.
Host(s): Dr. Mary Goldberg, Co-Director of the IMPACT Center at the University of Pittsburgh
Guest(s): Mike Soniat and Wayne Newitts
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DOOR-E | Website, Facebook
Discussion Topics
Mary Goldberg 0:04
The IMPACT Center at the University of Pittsburgh, supported by the National Institute of Disability, Independent Living and Rehabilitation Research, proudly presents ImpacTech. Welcome to season four of the ImpacTech podcast. On today's episode "Opening Doors to Independence" with DOOR-E, winner of the 2025 RESNA Developers Showcase Impact Award. We're joined by the creators of DOOR-E, a truly portable, affordable and installation free, door automation device. Born out of a desire to help a friend with mobility needs, DOOR-E has grown into a pre release product that integrates seamlessly with smart home systems and opens new possibilities for accessible living. Their innovation embodies the spirit of the Impact Award, breaking down barriers, unlocking potential and redefining what assistive technology can be. Recorded remotely from my soundproof bedroom closet in Pittsburgh. PA, this is your host, Dr, Mary Goldberg, and welcome to our 32nd episode of the ImpacTech podcast series.
Mary Goldberg 1:14
Well, thanks again, Wayne and Mike for being with us here today. We can't wait to learn more about DOOR-E and are hoping that you can tell us about the moment that originally sparked the idea for your product?
Mike Soniat - DOOR-E 1:41
All right, I've been a electronic hobbyist, professionally, a programmer, but an electronic hobbyist for many years, and I like to build robots, and I always look for a problem I could solve with them, but normally it's just been building a robot. So anyway, I work from home. Part of the time. I'm in a lot of zoom meetings like this, and I wanted to build a robot. It was trying to run around in my head what I wanted to build. And my I was in a meeting, and someone came to the door, and my wife went to the door, they started talking, and I thought, gotta get up and close my door. And then I thought, oh, I can build a robot that closes my door when I get in the Zoom meeting, right? So that's how it started, just as a play thing. But then I have a really good friend of many years. He was a business partner of mine for 25 years. He had polio as a child in his older years. He's had a lot of challenges with mobility, Wheelchair, Scooter, that kind of thing. And I showed it to him, just this is a cool project I built, and he said, I would love to have that in my house. And that's actually when the light bulb went off, because rich really needed something like that. And I thought, well, maybe other people that have difficulty just maneuvering around doors and things. So that was really how it started. And then I entered a contest and learned more about what really needed to be done. Needed to be portable. It needed to be, you know, lightweight, wireless. You know, all the, all the specs that we built into it came later as I started looking at what people really wanted in a door opener that was not the big, bulky thing, you know, at the top of the door
Mary Goldberg 3:13
that was one of the things that we really loved about your story, was this personal connection to your friend that really motivated you to stay the course related to this product. So how did that specifically shape your design approach? Was he involved throughout the whole process?
Mike Soniat - DOOR-E 3:32
He was involved, you know, we talked about different floor surfaces and different speeds, and you know how it would attach to the door. I did, like I said, I entered it in a contest on hackster.io and it was specifically an assistive technology contest. I entered it with Rich's input, and then they also gave me a lot of input on some of the things that, again, like the portability was the big thing with them. Not so much with rich, because he was just going to use it in his house, but easily to easy to install, was important to him. He wanted to be able to control it with many different methods. So like a smartphone Alexa all the home automation systems, he had a very narrow group of those, but then expanded that out when I entered this contest, and I came in second place of about 600 entries, so I did pretty well on that and got some free electronic stuff.
Mary Goldberg 4:23
That's so awesome. Congratulations.
Mike Soniat - DOOR-E 4:26
I filed my provisional patent first, so if I did not put it out there in the world until I had that file.
Mary Goldberg 4:32
Yay. Yes. Note to all our listeners, make sure you're protecting your IP before where you go out and enter any competitions or have any kind of public disclosure like that, exactly. And so was it through your Hackster experience that you realized this could be more than a one time solution, and, you know, hopefully fill a market gap.
Mike Soniat - DOOR-E 4:52
That's when it really started. Like I said, Rich had given me his feedback, and I was just going to build it for him originally. And then I really thought, Well, it'd be in. The contest those judges, the judges were actually people with mobility challenges, and they were speaking from firsthand. In fact, the first thing the judge said to me was, I would buy this tomorrow. So that made me feel really good about it. So at that point, I felt pretty good about it. I talked to Wayne. That's when Wayne got involved, kind of as from a sales and marketing standpoint, like, can you make me a brochure? Let's make a little website and a brochure. And I'm going to go to the Abilities Expo in Houston, just attend, and I'm just going to talk to people. So I'm a Program. I'm an introvert mostly, but when I get to trade shows, somehow this thing comes over me. So I went there with the intention of just talking to the vendors, like going around, learning about the industry. But when I got there, there were 6000 people there, so the vendors were very busy, and we know that firsthand. Now we'll talk about a little bit later. We actually did the show this year, but so while I'm standing around with these brochures, people started asking questions, and I just started pitching. I didn't have anything to sell. But, like, what do you think of this? And people were so overwhelmingly positive about it. I gave out about 50 brochures, and all these people were very interested, you know, where can we buy it? Etc, but that, again, kind of solidified that idea that there actually is a market out there for this. That's when Wayne and I got really serious about, you know, building some prototypes that worked. We started a little slack channel with a few people that I had made contact with at the Expo last year, and just started building it with the intention of getting the word out there. And I'm getting ahead of your questions, but we did enter Dory into the RESNA show in Chicago for the technology, and we won, and that was really awesome. So again, just solidify that. And then finally, this last weekend, Wayne and I got had a booth at the Abilities Expo in Houston three days, and it was just unbelievable. We we start, we started a Facebook page like days before the event, we had eight followers, like our fan, our friends and family. And when we left on day three, we had like 118 followers on our on our Facebook. So really amazing feedback, talking to these people, hearing their stories about the challenges and, you know, oh, my mother needs this. Or, you know, all the really personal stories that we heard there, which is really inspiring and makes us feel, yeah, we want to build a business and a product, of course, but it also is a really feel good industry to be in
Mary Goldberg 7:32
that had to be very validating. And the impact center is really pleased to be able to sponsor the resident design challenge. So the rehab engineering and assistive technology Society of North America hosts an annual conference, and often will partner up with organizations. So this past conference was at rehab week, but coming up here next year, they will be partnering with the Abilities Expo. So such an awesome opportunity for anyone out there who's looking to get more feedback on their products and get in front of individuals with disabilities abilities. Expo is certainly more consumer focused in that way. So so very much promote that. And I'm so glad to hear that that was your experience as well
Mike Soniat - DOOR-E 8:20
It was exhausting, but wonderful.
Wayne Newitts - DOOR-E 8:22
Yeah, I was a little concerned I would not have a voice for a podcast, but a lot of lot of honey and tea. And I think
Mike Soniat - DOOR-E 8:31
we pitched, I mean, we barely sat down. And Wayne and I have done trade shows in the construction software industry for 30 years. So we were veterans to trade shows, but we've never had a trade show that we were this busy, because literally everyone that walked by, we were MC robot, you know? And it was, it was very great. It was a very validating experience.
Mary Goldberg 8:54
Yeah, yeah, there's a true gap when you have that kind of interaction and validation. So that's fantastic.
Mike Soniat - DOOR-E 9:03
And the community was great, but also the organization, the a lot of the people in the Abilities Expo are volunteers. They were really awesome as well. They it's an environment where vendors are not at each other's throats. We can work together. Everybody wants to help each other. Different world for us, for sure, for sure. And we really enjoyed that as well. We met Dave Stevens, great guy, but so many great people in that organization
Wayne Newitts - DOOR-E 9:30
I haven't stopped smiling since I got back.
Mike Soniat - DOOR-E 9:33
Yeah, but also some kind of tearful, gut wrenching moments, because people come over, like I said, to the booth, and tell you their stories. And you think, wow, if we're not grateful for what we have now, we really are after that show.
Wayne Newitts - DOOR-E 9:46
I mean, yeah. I mean, the whole time we're there, Mike and I are thinking, oh my gosh, we can, we can solve this additional problem for this, this person we just met that we never thought of before.
Mike Soniat - DOOR-E 9:56
Exactly
Wayne Newitts - DOOR-E 9:57
The community feedback is incredible.
Mary Goldberg 10:00
Yeah. More to go into your business plan, right?
Mike Soniat - DOOR-E 10:03
The most common comment we got, though, was you guys need to go in Shark Tank.
Mary Goldberg 10:09
Everybody told us that, oh, that's so fun. It's so you mentioned before, Mike about the competitive products being a bit bulkier. So I'm hoping that you can describe in an illustrative way how Dori works from setup to operation, especially those that are just listening to this podcast. And what makes it different from other interior door automation systems that are on the market,
Mike Soniat - DOOR-E 10:39
Right, so I mean most of the door automation systems on the market now are focused on exterior doors. That's one thing, and a big reason. Why is because they're very expensive. So you're typically in the $2,000 range for an automatic door opener, you have to get it professionally installed. In most cases, there are some exceptions, but you have to get power to it has to be mounted on the door or the door frame, and it works well in those environments. And for exterior doors, because you have the door latch and the lock and all of that Dory is currently focused on the interior doors, because that seems like where the space is in the market. Bathroom doors, for example. I mean, that's a very difficult thing for a person navigating a wheelchair or a scooter because they're narrow. They have to turn around. One young lady said, basically said, this would give her mom her dignity back, because she can't close the door when she goes to the bathroom. You know, a lot of people have taken their doors out of their homes and putting curtains in and things like that. Very common. I didn't know that. So that's really the design focus of Dory, is it's it's very small, weighs a couple of pounds. You hold it in your hand and there's just one little clamp. Slide onto the door and release a spring loaded clamp and push the on button. And then you can control it with our app. You control it with Alexa or Siri or all your home automation systems, and that really is the simplicity of it, and it's portable. So take it with you. When you go on vacation to an Airbnb or to stay at, you know, a friend's house or family's it charges through a standard USB cable, so you can charge it in place with a power bank. You can charge it from a you have a long enough cable charge it from the wall. The app will indicate battery level, let you know when it's getting low. We have other notifications that we're building into the app, but, but, yeah, the market really is that zero installation, basically portability and and price, because we're we're not in production yet. We had a bunch of prototypes that we showed at the at the Expo. We hope to be in production by the end of the year. We're really trying to work hard to do that, and shooting for an price point under $500 so as I said, most of the other door openers are around $2,000 and so that's quite a contrast. We do hope to work be able to get some inroads with like the VA and with insurance and companies and things like that to further help people afford the dories. But we, we don't have those contacts yet. Anyone listening that that has those contacts would be would love to be introduced.
Mary Goldberg 13:20
We'd love to chat with you about this afterwards, and certainly help to make that introduction that sounds great. And so the typical user experience who can use it, and how does he use it?
Wayne Newitts - DOOR-E 13:33
So when Mike brought me into this project, I also have have relatives who have challenges with home accessibility. My goddaughter had viral meningitis as an infant, and that's affected her dramatically, but she is a trooper, and she actually said, Uncle Wayne, I'll take one please. And can I have it be pink? Which is why, at our show, if you look at our Facebook page, you'll see a pink Dory on our table. So I was immediately brought in. My background was in engineering. I say was because that was several years ago, but so I was brought in to this project as a project of passion for me. And one thing I wanted to mention is I was very surprised, you know, being more of a commercial, sales and marketing oriented guy, that there was nothing else in the market at the price and with this set of functionality, the portability, Mike mentioned, the especially the limited or almost no installation required, aspects of this solution, and there was nothing really else out there that we were finding. So we feel like we've got a space to really help this community with, you know, interior door access. So as far as who we're targeting as our audience for Dory, anyone who needs assistive technology to help interior access through their homes, their offices, their Airbnbs. As Mike mentioned, this is. A portable device. And so when we began looking at who can benefit most from a solution like this, we obviously had the use cases that brought us into the Dory project, if you will, but we quickly realized this, this is a product that is usable by anyone who simply needs some assistance with navigating the interiors of homes offices. There are certainly ways to open doors, but they tend to be overkill when you're talking about just a smaller pantry door, a bathroom door, and so while people who need this type of assistance, it could be a very large market, we decided initially to focus on folks who are looking for just assistance with the activities of daily life, who have significant challenges with that. I will say that there are many other potential markets for Dory. I know dog owners would be one of them. I know that is personally I'm made use of right before this podcast to close my door with Dory make sure that my pup didn't join us. So you know, there are many use cases and audiences for this product, but our focus right now is to help a community of folks who need more accessibility and freedom in their in their home and office environments.
Mike Soniat - DOOR-E 16:17
Yeah, and I would add to that, the the actual people who are having difficulty navigating bedroom doors, bathroom doors, kitchen doors, those kind of things in their house, and the caregivers that help them, because we had a lot of interaction at the show with the caregivers and also a lot of the therapists that are helping these people, and they can open and close the doors for them without having to be there or, you know, go there and physically do it. And a lot of times, if you're and again, this is just, I'm learning this from the community. I don't know this firsthand, but if you are pushing someone that's in a wheelchair trying to get into a door. It's very difficult to open the door. The door tries to close right then you're pushing through it, and then you have to turn around and and close it. I mean, so even for the caregiver themselves, this is what I'm hearing, is like, that would be great, because we could just say, Alexa, open the door. It opens, walk through it. We have a setting that you can have an auto close after a certain number of seconds. Or you can get through it and say, Alexa close the door, you know. So that's, you know, both of those. It's still related to the same group, but the actual people and assistive people assisting them. There are some users that are not verbal. So you can use a button, you can use there are controls on the wheelchairs. We actually did a demo with a company that makes the little controls at the show. We made sure it would work with that using Bluetooth. So we want to be control ubiquitous as much as we can right whatever method you use to control other things in your world. We want Dory to work with that.
Mary Goldberg 18:05
I love that you're already thinking about the secondary users and the analogy of sidewalk curb cuts of them initially, you know, being put into place for individuals that use mobility devices. But think about the parents that push strollers and the individuals that use scooters that can just easily then, you know, traverse.
Mike Soniat - DOOR-E 18:29
Or you're carrying groceries, you're carrying groceries or something. Yeah, same thing.
Mary Goldberg 18:33
Yeah, same concept, right? Absolutely, yeah. Makes a lot of sense.
Mary Goldberg 18:40
From a simple idea to a functional prototype, door E has already come a long way, but their journey is just beginning. In the next episode, we'll talk about what it takes to bring a product like this to market, and how open door robotics is positioning door E to create lasting impact, if you like impactic, please review us on Apple podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts, thank you again for tuning in and continue to make an impact In whatever you do.
Mary Goldberg 19:21
A quick note from our sponsors, impact initiatives are being developed under a grant from the National Institute on Disability Independent Living and Rehabilitation Research. NIDILRR is a center within the Administration for Community Living Department of Health and Human Services. IMPACT initiatives do not necessarily represent the policy of NIDILRR, ACL, or HHS, and you should not assume endorsement by the federal government, and the same goes for the University of Pittsburgh. We would like to thank our impacted guests and our production team led by Dr Michelle Zorrilla at the University of Pittsburgh. Department of Rehabilitation Science and Technology.