Dynamic Exercise Chair With Sensor Feedback for Active Sitting
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Solution Overview
Problem
Prolonged sitting in jobs leads to health issues like muscle weakness and back pain due to sedentary behavior, as workers often lack motivation to engage in counteractive exercises.
Innovation Solution
A dynamic exercise chair equipped with force-providing elements, position sensors, and a microcomputer system that communicates with mobile devices to monitor and provide resistance, feedback, and exercise tracking, promoting active sitting and physiological wellness monitoring.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If workers engage in counteractive exercises to combat sedentary effects, then health issues are reduced, but workers lack motivation to exercise
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines the exercise function with the sitting function by integrating resistance providing elements directly into the chair structure. The seatback and seat pan work together as a unified exercise system, allowing users to perform exercises while seated, thus merging two previously separate functions (sitting and exercising) into one integrated system that addresses both comfort and health needs.
Solution Approach 2:
The chair provides automatic feedback and tracking of exercise performance through sensors and mobile device integration. The system self-monitors user effort, tracks progress over time, and provides motivational feedback without requiring external coaching or manual tracking, enabling the exercise program to serve itself and maintain user motivation automatically.
2Strength
If a dynamic exercise chair with resistance elements is provided, then muscle engagement is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The resistance providing elements serve multiple functions: they provide ergonomic support during normal sitting, enable active sitting exercises, and offer adjustable resistance for strength training. The same mechanical components that maintain seatback support also generate exercise resistance, eliminating the need for separate exercise machinery and reducing overall device complexity despite enhanced functionality.
Solution Approach 2:
The chair incorporates dynamic resistance adjustment based on user position and effort. The resistance providing elements automatically adjust the force required to move the seatback and seat pan based on the user's movements, creating a dynamic exercise experience without requiring complex electronic controls or multiple fixed resistance settings, thus maintaining simplicity while enhancing muscle engagement.
3Measurement precision
If position sensors and microcomputer systems are integrated to track exercise, then exercise tracking precision is improved, but manufacturing cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system integrates position sensors and mobile device communication to provide real-time feedback on exercise performance, posture, and progress. This feedback mechanism enables precise tracking of user efforts and provides motivational information to maintain engagement, with the added benefit that the same sensing infrastructure supports both exercise tracking and ergonomic optimization functions.
Data Source
AI summary
In one aspect, a computerized method includes the step of providing a dynamic exercise chair. The dynamic exercise chair includes a plurality of force providing elements that provide a resistance force to a seatback of the dynamic exercise chair. The dynamic exercise chair includes a plurality of position sensors that monitor a seatback position of the dynamic exercise chair. The dynamic exercise chair includes a microcomputer system that provides a set of control signals to the plurality of force providing elements, and receives a sensor data from the plurality of position sensors.