A Robot Chair Makes You Sit Up Straight
John Morrell is your typical professor of mechanical engineering. He puts in long hours at his desk, slouched in front of a computer, gradually killing the spongey intervertebral discs in that keep the spine flexible. Even after he went to a physical therapist for back pain, he couldn’t remember to sit up straight in his chair, he told the Yale Daily News.

Being an engineer, he eventually came around to the notion that it would be easier to change his environment than to change himself. So, along with his student Ying Zheng, he wired up an Aeron chair (street value: $850) with $70 worth of electronics, including six “force-sensitive resistors, or tactors.”
The chair’s operation is straightforward: if you deviate from an upright stance in which your spine is in the neutral position, as recommended by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, whatever pressure-sensitive sensor you aren’t leaning on starts to vibrate insistently.
If this sounds like, as the blog TechYum put it “robot Sister Mary Katherine SitUpStraight, complete with vibrating ruler,” then perhaps you haven’t quite got the right idea. The chair is meant to enhance your brief time on this earth, not turn your working hours into a Kafkaesque nightmare of unpredictable negative feedback.
“We are presently working on ways to make the chair less bitchy and more like a trusted yoga coach,” Morrell told FastCoDesign, and no I am not making that up. “Good posture at the expense of productivity or happiness is not where we want to stop.”
Keep Reading
Most Popular

The big new idea for making self-driving cars that can go anywhere
The mainstream approach to driverless cars is slow and difficult. These startups think going all-in on AI will get there faster.

Inside Charm Industrial’s big bet on corn stalks for carbon removal
The startup used plant matter and bio-oil to sequester thousands of tons of carbon. The question now is how reliable, scalable, and economical this approach will prove.

The dark secret behind those cute AI-generated animal images
Google Brain has revealed its own image-making AI, called Imagen. But don't expect to see anything that isn't wholesome.

The hype around DeepMind’s new AI model misses what’s actually cool about it
Some worry that the chatter about these tools is doing the whole field a disservice.
Stay connected

Get the latest updates from
MIT Technology Review
Discover special offers, top stories, upcoming events, and more.