No matter how creepy it might sound, sometimes it’s a good thing to have your desk watch over you. This customizable desk adjust itself so that you become faster, better, harder, stronger, pretty much in a Daft Punk way.
No, the Stir Kinetic Desk doesn’t want to act like Big Brother. Instead, the developers of this innovative desk thought of it as a remedy for a sedimentary lifestyle. I should know better, as I spend endless hours at my desk, in front of my computer, watching a white dot on a black display. I’m kidding about the last part, not so much about the others. Veterans of Apple, Ideo, Disney and NASA came together to
Apparently, sitting all day long at a desk in the same position could lead to all sorts of problems, in the long term. The consequences include a higher risk of getting lower back pain, diabetes and even death. Well, we all die at some point, but living a sedentary life makes things a tad faster.
JP Labrosse, Stir’s CEO, recalls of the time he spent at Apple, around the same period the iPod was born: “One of the first things I noticed was a lot of my colleagues there worked at elevated or height-adjustable work stations. I started talking with people about it and found out it helped them be more focused. So I started doing it myself.”
The thing that sets the Stir Kinetic Desk apart from similar pieces of furniture is the ability to elevate the working space, either manually or automatically, when the desk feels that you have sat or stood up for too long. While in Active Mode, the desk sometimes performs the WhisperBreath, which means that it rises and falls occasionally, to remind you that you need to change your position.
As Labrosse put it, “The desk is learning the best times to invite you to move. If you always get back from lunch and you always want to be in the standing position, those are the sorts of patterns the desk will pick up on.”
I haven’t seen many Wi-Fi or Bluetooth equipped desks, but the Stir Kinetic Desk packs both of these ways of staying connected. At $3,890 a piece, the Stir Kinetic Desk is not cheap, nor is it affordable, but innovations are rarely so. Who needs one of these desks in his life should probably make a financial sacrifice and get one.
If you liked this post, please check the Emperor 1510 LX workstation and the Pavlov Poke that boosts productivity by giving users electroshocks.
