VHerman Miller, the creator of the cubicle and the iconic Aeron chair, will begin selling sensors this week that connect its desks to the cloud—the first phase of a plan to add a layer of technology to your office workstation.
The sensors, which can be installed on any work surface, collect anonymized data about which spaces are used most; the facility’s manager can access the data through a dashboard in order to inform design and other types of decisions. Another version of the product, which can be added only to Herman Miller stand-to-sit desks, also keeps tabs on how often employees, in aggregate, change positions between standing and sitting. With this later version, workers can elect to use an app in which they set goals for changing between sitting and standing positions throughout the day. When it’s time for them to stand up or sit down, according to their goal, the desk’s controller will subtly vibrate, like the alarm function on a wearable fitness tracker. Herman Miller calls the whole system “Live OS.”
It’s not cheap. Each sensor alone costs around $100, and the software to go with them costs $36 per desk per year, including cellular connectivity costs (the system runs independently from client IT networks for security reasons). The option that works with Herman Miller sit-to-stand desks and comes with an app for workers costs $60 per desk per year (both prices go down with volume and as clients subscribe for longer periods of time).
