Herman Miller’s desk of the future
Herman Miller, the purveyor of high design products including the Aeron chair, Eames chair, etc., looks to bringing the desk for the high tech professional. The customer segment does not have to end there, mainstream people are more than likely owning gadgets purportedly dedicated to a single function (i.e., mobile, iPod, digital camera, etc.) than a convergence device that resembles a Swiss Army knife. Herman Miller’s answer is to bring a charging feature to the desk by licensing a system that ‘eliminates the need for dedicated chargers’.
Here’s how it works, a device first must be embedded with the eCoupled technology. When it is placed on the desk’s surface, power is transferred through a magnetic field.
Auto parts maker Visteon and the telecommunications HW maker Motorola are both working with eCoupled. Visteon has a charger that plugs into the cigarette lighter with a summer launch date. The adapter will be able to work with Motorola mobile phones, Apple iPod Shuffle and other gadgets. Look for more mobile phones embedded with eCoupled after the Visteon’s charger product launch.
This innovation can clearly expand to other markets including the home setting where kitchen tops can charge blenders, microwaves, TV’s. The ubiquity of power is limitless.
A curious question: similar to what Powerline Communications offers - the ubiquity of internet and network communications offered through the electrical system of the house. Could the eCoupled technology not only offer charging but another means of data connectivity? If that is viable, Herman Miller’s desk could one day become the all-important hub. This is a killer feature: a capability to charge all devices while improving the connectivity between devices.
Related: Reuters.com, textually.org
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