We proposed three concepts of vigorous monsters (VIGOMON) based on TOIO technic to help office workers reducing prolonged sedentary behaviors with physical activity promotion in the office environment. They are “Active Bean” “Lie-down Gym” and “Vitality Pop-up”. TOIO act as flexible robot helpers and playful controllers, used in combination with other objects in the scene, providing appropriate active interventions to help office workers keep health and well-being in an interactive way.
Process of making
A sedentary lifestyle is a major underlying cause of death, disease, and disability. Recent health research has shown that too much sitting, especially prolonged periods of sitting without breaks, is harmful to metabolic as well as musculoskeletal health. One of the specific contexts where people are engaging in sedentary behavior is in the workplace. To date, most of the relevant design cases from academics or interventions on the market are mostly from the technical point of view, instead of understanding office worker’s requirements from their contextual concern in the office environment. So, with this consideration, we have recruited 8 participants from 6 different office environments who are desk/computer task-dependent office workers to explore what’s going on here in the contexts of their office prolonged sedentary behaviors (O-PSB). We present three interactive design concepts based on TOIO technics according to three target contexts of O- PSB from our study: (a)Dancing Beans for in-site activity at the workstation (b)Lie-down Gym for short breaks in the office, and (c)Vitality Pop-up for activity exploring with instant information visualization.
Learning from activities
This is a technology driven challenge, but we're able to clearly identify a good use case from the beginning. Targeting sedentary behavior in office, we quickly mapped their conscious and unconscious work and rest patterns and further identified opportunities that could make use of TOIO robots. The challenge raised by Xiang Yu is clear and concise, which make brainstorming and conceptuation very easy and directed.
