Office seating with activity features
AssigneeHerman Miller, Inc.
InventorRobert L. Propst
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An office seating system which incorporates certain activity features into the office seating arrangement allowing the occupant to obtain beneficial exercise during the performance of work tasks. The activities which may be performed include: pedal pumping by the feet; a rocking of the seat on the upright with the head being fixed; a recline motion; and a pull and relax motion for the arms. Various mechanisms are disclosed for providing the accomplishment of these activity functions by occupants.
Claims10
In a work station wherein an individual occupies a seated position while working, the improvement which comprises a seating arrangement for the individual which concurrently provides both for stability of certain portions of the individual's body in conducting work tasks at the work station and for mobility of certain other portions of the individual's body to engage in therapeutic activities while conducting work tasks, said seating arrangement comprising a seat mounted on an upright by a mechanism which allows fore and aft motion of the seat relative to the upright thereby providing for mobility by fore and aft rocking of the seat so that the individual, by leg action, can generate rocking motion while maintaining his or her head stabilized for conducting work tasks, said mechanism comprising one or more rollers operatively engaged with a track providing a fore and aft motion by rolling engagement of the rollers with the track, a yieldable resistance which is effective to yieldably resist with increasing force increasing fore and aft displacement of the seat from a neutral position, and adjustment means for said resistance effective to enable the individual to set the magnitude of the resistive forces which are encountered during fore and aft displacement of the seat on the upright.
In a work station wherein an individual occupies a seated position while working, the improvement which comprises a seating arrangement for the individual which concurrently provides for stability of certain portions of the individual's body in conducting work tasks at the work station and for mobility of certain other portions of the individual's body to engage in therapeutic activities while conducting work tasks, said seating arrangement providing for mobility of one or both arms by allowing the individual to manually grasp a handgrip portion of an armrest and manipulate that portion with respect to the remainder of the armrest, said seating arrangement comprising a fixed armrest portion and a handgrip portion at the front of the fixed arm rest portion and means yieldably coupling the handgrip portion with the fixed armrest portion to provide a yieldable resistance to a forward motion of the individual's arm when manipulating the handgrip portion.
In a work station wherein an individual occupies a seated position while working, the improvement which comprises a seating arrangement for the individual which concurrently provides both for stability of certain portions of the individual's body in conducting work tasks at the work station and for mobility of certain other portions of the individual's body to engage in therapeutic activities while conducting work tasks, said seating arrangement providing for mobility of the individual's feet by means of a foot pumping mechanism comprising a treadle plate pivotally mounted about a pivot axis through a yieldable resistance.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.