Sitting is the New Standing: Wearable Chairless Chair

chairless chair

It’s a rather widely-accepted fact that sitting all day isn’t great for your health, but standing all day won’t do your body any favors, either. People who stand at work for eight or nine hours a day are at risk for all kinds of musculoskeletal problems.

noonee chairless chair

The Chairless Chair from Swiss company Noonee is a wearable chair of sorts. It attaches to the body at the waist, thighs, knees and shoes. The lightweight aluminum and carbon fiber exoskeleton allows for the full range of movement when it isn’t engaged, so workers can go about their regular business unimpeded.

When it’s time to stop moving and take some weight off of the legs, it’s as simple as settling into a comfortable sitting position and pushing a button that locks the Chairless Chair into that posture. All of the body weight is directed to the heel of the wearer’s shoes. The chair lets the user choose the position that’s most comfortable for them and encourages ergonomically correct posture, further reducing the risk for body stress-related injuries.

exoskeleton chairless chair

This wearable chair doesn’t give the user superpowers or increase their muscle strength in any way; it just takes the strain off of their lower extremities to combat muscle fatigue, poor posture, and long-term musculoskeletal damage. Noonee pictures the Chairless Chair being useful in a wide variety of settings, but for now their focus is on getting it into factories where workers have to perform various functions while standing for an entire shift.

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See more in Cybernetics or under Technology. September, 2014.