First world chair
Ok I admit defeat.
When, sometime back, I got myself a replica Aeron office chair I was hoping for better things.
It’s going.
The primary issue? I keep sliding down in it. Can’t stop it.
One minute I am perched in the Stepford position.
The next, my head is level with the desktop, visibility to the monitor obscured by a slab of Ikea.
I do plan to video myself because there is some sort of extra dimensional other-universe thing going down where I do not perceive the Euclidian transition.
I tried adjusting the thing and decided it was designed by a designer without consultation with either an engineer or an ergonomics expert or anyone with a shred of honesty (‘seriously Herman, it’s shit’). Or me.
Who let the dogs out of the Bauhaus?
Online I discover that I am not alone. Many hate the Aeron for a variety of reasons.
There is even a collective of fat American men that wear Chinos and have fat wallets in their back pockets that have found that the Pellicle material rips their pants. And, in their disgust, they have found each other! Thank Christ for the internet.
And then I was thinking – this problem represents a Gen Y product opportunity. The Y’s can overthrow this darling of the baby-boomer’s office obsessions.
Take a first world problem that few have noticed (particularly the sufferers), and then solve it with existing technology and a smartphone app, and then slap it on Kickstarter.
Here we go:
An office chair.
A bunch of electric motors in the seat for adjustment, borrowed from a car seat.
A battery to drive the motors.
An inductive charger receiver in the base of the chair to power the battery.
An inductive charger transmitter in a floor mat, plugged into mains power, to drive the inductive charger receiver in the base of the chair.
A smartphone app, connected via bluetooth 4.0 (low power) to the chair, for adjustment of the chair settings.
Sensors in the chair to monitor heart rate, body temperature, posture and the like. The app will then suggest improvements to the user such as ‘time for a break’, ‘time for some exercise’ and ‘straighten your back’.
The app can also be setup to measure daily calorie usage and then integrate with the user’s favourite exercise app and wrist-band monitor to measure and report on, and help control, a large fraction of the user’s daily activities. This technology can be extended to the user’s bed for 24 hour coverage.
A customizable feedback mechanism, vibration most likely, in the chair that the user can set up for alerts such as ‘get your hand off it’ or ‘your girlfriend is calling’.
Possibly also the user will be able to get, via the internet, alarms when an intruder has used the chair in an unauthorised manner. The sensors will detect use by a non-owner and alert the user wherever they are on the planet, so they can then phone or message back to the office for corrective action.
It’s a winner!
offshore westerly 