Herman Miller, Inc., expands upon Live OS, a system of cloud-connected furnishings, app, and dashboard, to include the iconic Aeron Chair. With this digitally enhanced chair, people are more aware of their seated posture and can set goals for improving it. Together, the Live app, desk, and Aeron Chair create a new suite of responsive furnishings and tools that offer a more intuitive and active experience of work.
The Live OS system, initially introduced at NeoCon 2017, connects Herman Miller furnishings, including sit-to-stand and fixed height desks, and now the Aeron Chair. Either when first installed, or retrofitted later, Live products are equipped with technology that is continuously connected to the cloud using a secure cellular network, independent of an organizations wifi. This connectivity enables Live OS products to provide data on space utilization for businesses and enhance the user experience by communicating with people in new ways.
Technology in the chair’s seat and tilt mechanism senses movement and communicates with the desk. When a person sits or stands, the desk moves accordingly to their preferred height, ensuring a seamless transition between postures. This holistic system of person, chair, and desk working in concert intuitively shapes an environment to encourage health-positive behaviors.
After setting and saving personal preferences and mobility-goals in the app, Live Aeron captures ergonomic data on people’s posture when sitting, which the Live app analyzes and delivers in an easy-to-follow plan for people to achieve their activity goals.
With Live OS, organizations ensure people are using and benefitting from their investment in ergonomic furnishings. Anonymized activity data from Live Aeron offers a view to how people are engaging with and moving in their chairs. Using this insight, organizations help people stay comfortable as they work. As adoption and utilization rates increase, organizations realize the advantages of work environments that empower people to stay active as they work.
“The benefits of the Live OS system are really three-fold,” explains Greg Bylsma, President of Herman Miller North America. “Immediately, the users benefit from an enhanced work experience and businesses benefit by better understanding the utilization of their real estate footprint. Looking forward, as we continue to collect data on how products are being used and identify patterns in the workday, this evolving data will help us design new products to fit the needs of tomorrow’s workforce.”
The Live OS system is available in the United States and Canada as part of a suite of workplace services connected to Herman Miller’s research-based Living Office insights and principles for workplace design. Live OS-enabled desking was made available spring of 2017, the Live OS-enabled Aeron seating will be available spring 2018.