The Chairless Chair
If you’ve been looking for the perfect opportunity to freak out your co-workers, look no further than the new Chairless Chair that makes it look like you’re sitting on thin air. Created by Zurich-based startup noonee, the Chairless Chair is essentially a pair of bionic pants you can wear all the time, lock in place and lean on when you need the support. The pants use a hip harness that directs your weight onto the heels of your shoes when locked, but lets you move freely and even run while wearing them when unlocked. Simply move into your desired position and power on the device to lock using a single six-volt battery that can last up to 24 hours.
“The idea came from wanting to sit anywhere and everywhere, and from working in a UK packaging factory when I was 17,” 29-year-old noonee CEO and co-founder, Keith Gunura told CNN. “Standing for hours on end causes a lot of distress on the lower limbs, but most workers get very few breaks and chairs are rarely provided because they take up too much space. So I thought that the best idea was to strap an unobtrusive chair directly to myself.”
“In addition to resting your leg muscles, it also provides optimal posture,” noonee CTO and co-founder Bryan Anastisiades told CNN. “It keeps your back straight and can reduce the occurrence of bad posters [sic] for both healthy workers and those recovering from muscle related injuries.”
Sitting all day is really bad for you but standing for long periods is also not great, so the Chairless Chair is a welcome solution to this problem. Production line trials of the product are set to start in Germany with BMW in September and also with Audi later in 2014.
Source: +noonee