What if your desk chair could make you healthier? Or if your cubicle recognized you on sight and prepared your workstation accordingly? Live OS, launching today at NeoCon in Chicago, is making this futuristic concept a reality. The app-based connected office system, created by the ever-innovating designer Yves Béhar and renowned furniture manufacturer Herman Miller, allows for office furniture to connect with employees.
The system, part of Herman Miller's Living Office suite, optimizes workplaces by collecting data and distributing it through its app. If an employee changes workstations, preferences for things like desk height will be "recalled" at the push of a button. The technology also encourages employees to be healthier, giving prompts to stand or walk after a certain amount of idle time, much like the functionality of now-ubiquitous Fitbits, and even urging employees to improve their posture.
"Live OS is an example of how Herman Miller continues to evolve to better serve our customers as they increasingly look to the workplace to drive their own business transformation," Greg Bylsma, Herman Miller North America president, said in a statement. "With decades of experience in human-centered design, we’re introducing services like Live OS, to help our customers create workplaces that empower, energize, and perform."
Herman Miller worked with Béhar, with whom they've produced such products as the LED Leaf lamp, the Sayl desk chair, and the Public Office Landscape, to realize the system, which is available on new Herman Miller models and also as a retrofit on older office furniture. Béhar is a pioneer at the intersection of technology and design, developing such innovations as a robotic security system, a TV that doubles as a fine art frame, and a robotic home that will rearrange your furniture for you. Live OS takes his expertise with robotics into office design. "The future of a workplace supported by technologies that bridge the physical world with individual ergonomic needs is now upon us," Béhar affirms.
