This was a project I did in my Critical Making class at UC Berkeley.  The project prompted us to embed a transportation device with Aurduino technology.

 

We decided to loosly interpret that and use a combination of an office chair and shoes in order to explore how we could enhance health in the work place.  Specifically by encouraging the user to take frequent breaks from work.

 

This project was originally published on hackster.io.  View the full project here.

We embedded a pressure sensor in the seat of the chair, linked up to LED lights embedded in the arm, and a custom made vibrating motor attached to the back of the chair.  As the user sits in the chair, the LED lights slowly light up one at a time, until they are all lit up.  Once the last one has lit up, the back of the chair lightly vibrates, giving haptic feedback to the user that it is time to get up and take a break. 

 

Personally, I was responsible for several key design decisions, a lot of the hardware hacking and electrical wiring in the chair, and editing the demo video.

 

Check out our demo video below.

We originally posted this project on hackster.io.  You can see the full project details here.

 

Special thanks to Kelsey Brennan, Shaun Giudici, Kevin Simmons, and Dennis Rong for being great project partners.