Oki today announced that it has applied its advanced robotic technologies to a seating application. Together with Okamura, the two companies became first in the world to develop a concept model for seating using muscular mechanism. The concept model fits the body, in which the back and seat of the chair follow the movement of the user’s body from seating and reclining through to standing. Oki focused on a situation where a child is held by the parent on the lap – that is, to develop a seat that can embrace the sitter through robotic technology based on an understanding of the human skeletal structure and muscular mechanisms. Adopting the very human concept of ’embrace and wrap,’ Oki and Okamura decided to develop the concept jointly. By using various technologies of Okamura’s seating technology, including a newly developed carbon frame and seating cushion shape into the concept model, the two companies succeeded in achieving a new idea.
When a person sits into the seat, it feels as if the seat is wrapped around from the back, and fits perfectly to the back. Whether in a reclining or in a forward leaning position, the seat fits perfectly. In addition, when the person scoots his or her body forward to stand up, the seat rises up slightly to assist the user to a natural standing position. This is not a mechanism that pursues only the comfort when reclining as in conventional products, but it continues to fit from seated, reclining, and leaning positions through to standing up-in other words, a completely new mechanism.
