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posted by Fnord666 on Sunday September 16 2018, @08:10AM   Printer-friendly
from the Bringing-Up-The-Rear dept.

Recent market research says that the average gamer spends six hours a week playing video games, and when you consider hardcore and professional gamers, you can be talking about six hours a day. IKEA, the ubiquitous Swedish furnishing company, has teamed up with the prosthetics firm UNYQ to design Ubik, the chair custom-fit to one's posterior. When someone purchases one in an IKEA store, they would get their backside scanned from which custom-made 3D-printed inserts would be produced and shipped to the customer.

"Gamers are an extreme use case. They're athletes, they're competing with their minds and their bodies," says Ingemarsson, as he tested the prototype on stage. "I think bringing this type of personalization to fit unique ergonomic needs, body types and modes of play will give somebody a healthier life and a better competitive advantage."


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  • (Score: 4, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 16 2018, @08:54AM (4 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 16 2018, @08:54AM (#735585)

    "Gamers are an extreme use case. They're athletes..."

    hahahahahahahahahahahahaha

    • (Score: 3, Touché) by MostCynical on Sunday September 16 2018, @11:57AM (1 child)

      by MostCynical (2589) on Sunday September 16 2018, @11:57AM (#735620) Journal

      Competing with their minds and their bodies

                                                                            against the forces of entropy, heart disease [google.com.au] and stupidity. [youtube.com]

      --
      "I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 17 2018, @01:18AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 17 2018, @01:18AM (#735807)

        Everyone wants us to die anyway. What do you care if our asses feel a bit better while we wait for death? (forget suicide, my family needs the life insurance payout. I'm literally worth more dead than alive.)

    • (Score: 1) by easyTree on Sunday September 16 2018, @03:59PM

      by easyTree (6882) on Sunday September 16 2018, @03:59PM (#735675)

      "Gamers are an extreme use case. They're athletes..."

      hahahahahahahahahahahahaha

      Olympic-level cheeto-eating is a sport.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 16 2018, @07:45PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 16 2018, @07:45PM (#735722)

      AHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA

      "I play video games good, give me money!"

  • (Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 16 2018, @09:08AM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 16 2018, @09:08AM (#735588)

    After sitting in a chair for many years, I have butt trouble.

    If I just wiped like normal, my anus would be bleeding. Like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcwfEMdV-aM [youtube.com]

    So instead, I use the shower. I gently probe around inside my butthole to pull out turds. I rub around the rim to get clean. I tuck the bulging hemorrhoid back into my butt.

    Now, that is easier said than done. I can push the hemorrhoid back in, but then I have my finger up my ass. I can't go to work that way. If I pull my finger out, the hemorrhoid pops out again. So after I get my hemorrhoid and finger into my ass, I have to sort of wiggle my finger way over to one side of the hemorrhoid and then use my free fingers to push the skin on the hemorrhoid side toward my butthole while pulling the skin on the opposite side away, sort of. It's a complicated and difficult manipulation that takes several tries.

    If you would enjoy this, have a seat. Do that every day, and then when you are middle-aged you too can have butt trouble.

    • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 16 2018, @11:16AM (2 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 16 2018, @11:16AM (#735612)

      That doesn't sound like hemorrhoids. It sounds like anal prolapse.

      • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday September 17 2018, @02:15PM (1 child)

        by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Monday September 17 2018, @02:15PM (#735970) Journal

        That could be a mis diagnosis.

        The poster could be suffering with, or making us suffer with his fecal philia [urbandictionary.com] or Coprophilia [wikipedia.org].

        --
        People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 17 2018, @09:21PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 17 2018, @09:21PM (#736198)

          Or Trollophilia.

  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by BsAtHome on Sunday September 16 2018, @11:46AM (1 child)

    by BsAtHome (889) on Sunday September 16 2018, @11:46AM (#735617)

    ...will give somebody a healthier life...

    Yeah, Right!

    Sitting all the time does make you very healthy, does it now.

    Remember those hamsters? Such a wheel would be perfect for gamers. A game on repeat, just like walking in endless circles ;-)

    • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday September 17 2018, @02:16PM

      by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Monday September 17 2018, @02:16PM (#735971) Journal

      As long as it is twisty little passages, all alike.

      --
      People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
  • (Score: 2) by stretch611 on Sunday September 16 2018, @12:20PM

    by stretch611 (6199) on Sunday September 16 2018, @12:20PM (#735627)

    Recent market research says that the average gamer spends six hours a week playing video games,

    Their ass is nothing compared to mine... 😜

    --
    Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 16 2018, @12:37PM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 16 2018, @12:37PM (#735632)

    Part of being a gamer must be delaying trips to the toilet (loo) as long as possible. But if you were sitting on a toilet seat all the time (connected to some kind of port-a-potty) you could stay at the controls continuously.

    • (Score: 2) by crafoo on Sunday September 16 2018, @03:23PM (1 child)

      by crafoo (6639) on Sunday September 16 2018, @03:23PM (#735668)

      Was going to say this myself too. Needs integrated shit bucket and catheter tube. OK maybe the tube only for "hardcore" gamers. Maybe just a Dirt Devil vacuum tube for your everyday gamer.

      • (Score: 3, Funny) by stretch611 on Sunday September 16 2018, @10:24PM

        by stretch611 (6199) on Sunday September 16 2018, @10:24PM (#735756)

        Real gamers don't need a catheter. They just use the empty 2-liter bottles of Mountain Dew. (unfortunately, it is difficult to tell a new bottle of Mt Dew from a recycled one.)

        --
        Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 17 2018, @12:06PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 17 2018, @12:06PM (#735937)

      Part of doing anything interesting enough to not want to walk away from it, could have the same said of it.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 16 2018, @01:42PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 16 2018, @01:42PM (#735646)

    Has someone been reading Philip K. Dick [wikipedia.org]?

  • (Score: 2) by richtopia on Monday September 17 2018, @12:46AM (4 children)

    by richtopia (3160) on Monday September 17 2018, @12:46AM (#735793) Homepage Journal

    If you spend a lot of time at your desk, don't be afraid of spending money on the chair. Used Herman Miller or Steelcase chairs can be found on Craig's List from companies going out of business, and in my experience switching to an Aeron from a cheap Walmart chair the change was felt quickly.

    I also now have a standing desk for similar reasons. I know I will spend a lot of time at the computer, so I try to make it as painless as possible.

    • (Score: 2) by VLM on Monday September 17 2018, @02:10PM (3 children)

      by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Monday September 17 2018, @02:10PM (#735966)

      in my experience switching to an Aeron

      The biggest problem with used is they're customizable from memory there's A B C weight classes and at a former employer so nobody had the bad feels they bought giant chairs for everyone and those are sorta uncomfortable for smaller folks, throne like. Aside from mere mass there's massive differences thru the years for all the other ergonomics, arm rests or not, that weird back thing that pokes in your back making it uncomfortable, etc.

      Also they're rated to 350 and we had some big boys at my former employer and they'd kill chairs occasionally. Amazingly people don't trust the mesh so they overbuild the hell out of it, the dead chairs mostly had dead lift mechanisms not torn mesh. Much like some cars were only driven by 75 year old women five miles to church every sunday so they're like new and some cars were drag raced by 19 year old meth addicts and are a little worn around the edges. I kind of can evaluate a car and know mechanics who can do a better job and some places offer used car maint agreements, but complicated ergo-chairs are unclear to me.

      So buying an Aeron used is like buying a used car, you can't just ask "mail me a used car" and expect it to turn out well.

      In other news, semi related, OSHA allows desks to have 22-30 inches of knee space, the top of my knees is 25 inches off the floor, and a former employer installed keyboard trays underneath the desks that couldn't be lifted above 24 inches with the excuse that you can just lean forward or go into extreme wide-knee stance or keep your legs non-perpendicular to the floor or just twist your body all day. Thank god one of the unions complained and several of us got our keyboard trays removed. I took mine out myself with a screwdriver. Anyway the point of this superficially unrelated story is attempts at hyper-customized ergonomic stuff usually result in two things: 1) people F up the customization 2) there will always be a bean counter who will "save money" by eliminating all customization and forcing something that doesn't fit. So look out for those two anti-patterns when buying your ergo chair. You have to buy an Aeron knowing you're probably going to mess up the purchase requiring more cash, such that going to a dealer and buying a new one MIGHT be cheaper in the long run than buying a used one and a pile of spare / wrong sized parts.

      There's a purpose for mail order ergo chairs, like if there's 50 in your building and you can sit in each until you find the right model, then mail order your own exact replica. But for a dude going in cold, I donno about mail order or used.

      • (Score: 2) by richtopia on Monday September 17 2018, @04:53PM (2 children)

        by richtopia (3160) on Monday September 17 2018, @04:53PM (#736055) Homepage Journal

        Yea, you are right about hit or miss used chair quality. Specifically the Large size Aeron chairs: they have wider mesh (more leverage) and handle heavy occupants, so they wear out much faster. At work we have Steelcase Leap chairs and I now prefer them to the Aeron I personally own.

        Often on Craig's List you can find a clearing house (example below). The price may have a premium over private party sales but you can sit in and inspect the furniture before purchasing, and there is a selection to choose from. Like everything life is a compromise: brand new is pricy, reseller is less pricy, sight unseen is risky.

        https://portland.craigslist.org/mlt/fud/d/herman-miller-aeron-chairs/6680709540.html [craigslist.org]

        • (Score: 2) by VLM on Monday September 17 2018, @08:56PM

          by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Monday September 17 2018, @08:56PM (#736178)

          Steelcase Leap chairs

          I've heard nothing but good stories about those, specifically version 2 or option 2 or some such. Are they any good? I've never sat in one.

          I came up with an interesting justification for mail order sight unseen used Aeron chairs... spare parts are supposedly not cheap, so if an entire used chair is cheaper than two new replacement arm rests, may as well buy the whole chair for the arms and toss the guts in a corner of the basement until needed.

          My main office chair is a office warehouse store "executive chair" all puffy and comfy. My general understanding from when I hurt my back based on talking to the doc is the quality of the chair sets how long you can sit in it without pain; but since I was prescribed to get up and walk around on a regular basis for my back recovery (more than a decade ago) it doesn't matter too much for me, although I am thinking of getting a new chair, so maybe... Kinda like my back and now my lifestyle limit me to a couple hours without a break so there's no point upgrading from a four hour chair to an eight hour chair if I never exceed two hours anyway between getting up and walking around or even working out during a break.

        • (Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Monday September 17 2018, @09:34PM

          by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us (6553) on Monday September 17 2018, @09:34PM (#736211) Journal

          But then the question of how do you avoid knockoffs? (Clearing house or private party)?

          --
          This sig for rent.
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