Active workstation apparatus and method

Abstract

An apparatus and method provide various desk structures as workstations to receive a user, standing or sitting, walking or stationary, exercising or sedentary. A double duty desk system may include multiple, dedicated “sitting desks” at seated height and fixed to a shared “standing desk,” the height of whose desktop stands accessible to a user exercising on an exercise bike, treadmill, stepper, or the like. A user in an exercise (e.g., standing) position may view materials set on the standing desk and on the attached sitting desks and returns. Heights of desks may be permanently fixed, adjustable, powered, mechanized, manual, or a combination. A user may selectively exercise or sit, in order to read, browse online, attend webinars, edit, monitor, handwrite, type, lecture, listen, answer phones, make calls, develop software, or the like from a standing or sitting position, at will.

Description

RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional patent application Ser. No. 61 / 832,115, filed Jun. 6, 2013, entitled ACTIVE WORKSTATION APPARATUS AND METHOD, and claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional patent application Ser. No. 61 / 832,475, filed Jun. 7, 2013, entitled ACTIVE WORKSTATION APPARATUS AND METHOD, both of which are hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.BACKGROUND[0002]1. Field of the Invention[0003]This invention relates to exercise apparatus and, more particularly, to novel systems and methods for combining a desk-type work space with exercise apparatus and methods.[0004]2. Background Art[0005]For decades, work space, particularly desks constructed as work space or workstations for individuals, have continued a development approach that minimizes motion. Particularly, one objective appears to be the minimizing of any need of a worker to rise out of a desk chair to reach for anything in the work space. Thus, shelving, desktop ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0017]Meanwhile, a standing desk will typically be set at a height suitable for a user or a group of users. Thus, a standing desk may be set at a particular height. That height may be permanently fixed, may be adjustable with some inconvenience, or may be readily adjustable and conveniently so.

[0018]In other embodiments, height adjustments may be driven by cranks, rack-and-pinion drives, equilibrated (spring or counter-weight driven) supports, or the like. Nevertheless, such complexities need not be requirements in a system, inasmuch as a working height of any working surface is coincident with about the lower extent of the rib cage of a user. Whether sitting or standing, such a height is about at the same distance from a user's shoulder as is that same user's elbow. Thus, elbows can be rested on a desktop or withdrawn therefrom. Hands can easily access papers, books, keyboards, controls, and the like on the desktop.

Problems solved by technology

Moreover, long hours, urgent deadlines, demanding projects and customers, long commutes, and other factors combine to consume free time, or that portion of a day that may have been free time in previous generations.

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