Yeah, I’m really sorry about that title. It’s Maker Faire. I’m exhausted. Is this one-off concept chair from designer Nathan Tobiason interesting or completely OTT? Help me out in the comments. Personally I kind of like his transparent planar coin bank better. Ooooo…I think I’ll blog that next. [via Recyclart]
18 thoughts on “Screw this chair”
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Seems it would tend to grab pocket buttons and other random projections… though you could fine-tune it to your posterior by carefully tweaking the contour within a narrow range.
Ages ago, some friends in the recumbent bicycle business built a “bed of nails” seat, with each one a linear position sensor. That was then used to create a custom mold matched to an individual. Their informal name for it was the “ass-o-matic.”
Love the name for your butt contour gauge.
It’s an interesting way to make a flat surface from a very irregular pile of blocks. I think Steven is right though, it might attack your butt-pockets.
I wonder if there’s a way to eliminate the “pocket snag” aspect of this, make it comfortable, but retain the “chair made of screws” aspect?
And at least this guy’s design group seems to have *physically built* their ideas, as opposed to throwing rendered images at us. That’s +5 to their credibility right out of the gate.
Nate – that’s for sure. I get *so* disappointed when I read about a very cool gadget/design/vehicle/whatever, then realize it’s a concept piece. I once went far out of my way to see a demo of a locally infamous machine, only to be parked at a SPARCstation and shown a (very good) simulation. “Yes, but what about gear backlash?” I asked.
“No problem! The algorithm handles that.” There was no actual machine, however.
In a nutshell, that’s the problem with most engineering education these days.
Sorry for the thread drift… back to the chair. It could be covered with a flexible membrane, which would be desirable anyway to simplify recovery of lost pocket change and eliminate the eventual buildup of massive lint.
I wanted this for my deck, but those are obviously NOT deck screws.
:-P
I am thinking a remake with treated wood scraps, and some coated decking screws would be awesome for deck usage.
…so that the chair would have some give, but I have no idea where you would get them. A bajillion pushbutton momentary switches?
They could all be little solenoids with spring-loaded plungers. With clever design, these could be interrogated with matrix-addressing logic and analog switches to identify the shape and weight distribution of the posterior (potentially useful biometric data). It would have to recalibrate over time as the user’s weight changed and also allow for some clothing variance, but might still be a quick way to tell if a different person is in your chair. The solenoids, of course, would also be output devices to massage, present silent location cues, or… with a bit of training… convey graphical or vibratory cues.
Ach, crazy brainstorming! Wish I were at the Maker Faire this weekend.