Two innovative ways to fill a theater

In most theaters, people wander to their seat locations, a sometimes awkward way to fill the room. Technology, some brand new, some old, can change that. Segway-Ninebot has just announced a device—a self-balancing, two-wheeled chair—intended as a vehicle to transport people through the streets. This new chair could also be used (we here, now propose) […]

Robotic butt-in-seat testing

Ford produced this deadpan, precisely accented video narrated by engineer Svenja Fröhlich, about testing the repeated interaction of car seats and human butts. The official Ford announcement says: “A robot has been created to move like a human behind – and perfectly simulate how drivers and passengers get in and out of their car seats. Engineers used […]

Introducing the newly patented Wheelbarrow-Chair (and vice versa)

Do you sometimes wish you had a wheelbarrow that could convert into a chair? Or a chair that could convert into a wheelbarrow? You’re luck could be in. Inventors James Patrick Cardona, of Coolum Beach, Queensland (Australia); Trevor Raymond Clark, of Woombye, Queensland (Australia); Guy Darren Trappett, of Peregian Spring, Queensland (Australia); and Mario Cardona, […]

Subway Benches (postphenomenological viewpoints)

Subway benches, mundane though they might seem, can sometimes become ‘multistable’ – thereby attracting the attention of Robert Rosenberger (who is an assistant professor in the School of Public Policy at the Georgia Institute of Technology). The professor, a specialist in postphenomenology, has recently examined the multistability and agency of mundane artifacts (from speed bumps […]

Hydraulic invention: No need to clamber for theater seating

Next time someone disrupts your evening by clambering in or out of a nearby theatre seat, remember: it needn’t be this way. In 1924, Louis J Duprey of Dorchester, Massachusetts, patented a system that “permits any patron of the theatre to enter or leave his place without at all disturbing other patrons”. You, the patron, entered vertically, […]