For most people a sofa is simply a comfortable piece of furniture on which to lounge whilst reading, snoozing or watching the television. However modern designers have started to create stunning interactive sofas that offer a lot more than simply a cosy place to sit.
Danielle Sobik has designed a fascinating illuminated sofa that actually interacts with the people using it by creating beautiful light patterns. It uses light emitting technology together with trigger sensitive materials. When not in use, the sofa is a plain solid colour and looks quite unremarkable. However when someone sits on it, the sofa starts to create randomized blue flowery patterns. If another person sits down too they also trigger a similar response. If the persons move closer together, the sofa acknowledges their proximity by producing pink patterns as well as the blue.
There is also an illuminating chair that has pressure sensors in the seat that change colour from white to red if your are rather on the plump side. Some sofas even have fridges built in to the frame so that you do not have to interrupt your favourite television show to get yourself a cool drink.
Other innovative designs are sofa/sound system combinations. They have stereo speakers on each side with a plug for an iPod as well as audio controls. For example, the Baby Elephant Sofa, designed by Terence Conran, has a ‘subwoofer’ under the seat. A subwoofer is a deep bass speaker that produces low frequency sounds. The sofa also has a pair of slim speakers protruding from each side that resemble large ears, hence the name. When you are sitting in this sofa you will think you in a real cinema. It also solves the problem of where to place the speakers as wherever you move the sofa; the speakers will be in the correct place to give great sound.
Some designs also have built-in CD players as well as space under the seats and armrests to store your CD collection.
If you are a gaming fan then you might want to consider a multimedia sofa such as the one manufactured by Pyramat, an American based company. It is an ergonomically designed rocker chair that plays surround sound directly from your games console such as a PlayStation or Nintendo. It also includes a plug for your iPod or CD player. Most excitingly it vibrates or ‘rumbles’ so that you can feel the music as well as hear it. This is the ultimate sofa for game playing and will no doubt be popular with teenagers and young men in particular.
If you like to unwind after a hard day’s work, how about trying a massage sofa? One pioneering invention, the result of collaboration between designer Claudio Bellini and FBH Japan, includes four different massage settings for a full body massage. It incorporates pushing, percussion, stretching and kneading so that you can get rid of muscle stiffness and relieves tension.
So if you thought sofas were just handy pieces of furniture for sitting on, then think again! Who knows what wonderful ideas designers will come up with next?
489 Responses
Stay in touch with the conversation, subscribe to the RSS feed for comments on this post.
I thinks it’s interest that technology is being integrated it to practically everything these days. It’s like everything has as i before it like and ikettle or ilantern. I wonder what will be next?
satellite tv for pc
_________________
satellite tv for pc
Sofas are items that one gets comfortable in especially when you have the right kind of sofas. Almost every homeowner has a sofa of some kind in their house and many of us likes to have several varieties of sofas at home.
Good to know…….
Sofas
Just leaving a comment on how good the layout of your website is, been serching into creating a blogg similar to yours and might make mine similar, did you hire a coder or did you design it yourself?
Continuing the Discussion