Sitting won’t kill you. It’s actually great, and important! And for some people, like assembly line workers, not having a chair to sit in can actually pose a health hazard. That’s why Noonee developed the Chairless Chair, a chair you can wear.
Essentially a pair of mechanical pants that can lock in place, the Chairless Chair acts as a brace that any weary worker can wear at all times, and then simply lock into place and lean on when the opportunity presents itself. It’s a one-legged milking stool with a touch of Elysium. And because the Chairless Chair doesn’t actually touch the ground — it uses its hip harness to simply redirect arse-weight to the heels of the sitter’s foot — it’s apparently unobtrusive when it’s not in chair mode, allowing wearers to walk normally, or even run. That is, if they aren’t too busy basking in the glory of being seated.
The idea came from Noonee CEO Keith Gunura during his time working in a UK packing facility at age 17. And like all good ideas, it was born of the eternal desire “to sit anywhere and everywhere,” as Gunura so eloquently put it to CNN.
In its current form, the aluminium and carbon fibre Chairless Chair weighs in at just under 2.3kg, distributed over the whole lower body. That is to say “an absurdly low amount of effort to haul a chair around everywhere you go.” And just imagine how fantastic it would be if motorised. For the time being though, it’s staying simple, and the plan is to go into trials on factory floors at BMW and Audi this year. Hopefully it will make its way into the consumer world shortly after. Forget jetpacks; the future is about sitting anywhere. [Noonee via Hacker News]
Picture: Noonee