COMPUTER CONTROLLED FURNITURE AND METHOD
First Claim
1. A re-configurable item of furniture, comprising:
- at least a first reconfigurable portion comprising in turn;
a plurality of deformable cells, each respective one of the plurality of deformable cells having electrically operated valves to control a gas inflow to the respective cells from a gas inflow source, and a gas outflow from the respective cells, to thereby modify a pressure within respective cells; and
a control unit arranged to transmit control signals to a plurality of the electrically operated valves to modify the pressure within a plurality of the cells in a coordinated manner selected to generate a new configuration of support for a user of the furniture;
and wherein the gas inflow source comprises a high-pressure reservoir cell among the plurality of deformable cells.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A re-configurable item of furniture is provided, and includes at least a first reconfigurable portion having in turn a plurality of deformable cells, each having electrically operated valves to control a gas inflow to the respective cells from a gas inflow source, and a gas outflow from the respective cells, to thereby modify the pressure within respective cells. The gas inflow source includes a high-pressure reservoir cell among the plurality of deformable cells. The item of furniture also includes a control unit arranged to transmit control signals to a plurality of the electrically operated valves, including a valve of the high-pressure reservoir cell, to modify the pressure within a plurality of the cells in a coordinated manner selected to generate a new configuration of support for a user of the furniture.
10 Citations
14 Claims
-
1. A re-configurable item of furniture, comprising:
-
at least a first reconfigurable portion comprising in turn; a plurality of deformable cells, each respective one of the plurality of deformable cells having electrically operated valves to control a gas inflow to the respective cells from a gas inflow source, and a gas outflow from the respective cells, to thereby modify a pressure within respective cells; and a control unit arranged to transmit control signals to a plurality of the electrically operated valves to modify the pressure within a plurality of the cells in a coordinated manner selected to generate a new configuration of support for a user of the furniture; and wherein the gas inflow source comprises a high-pressure reservoir cell among the plurality of deformable cells. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
-
-
11. A remote device, comprising:
-
instruction processing means operable to generate, responsive to current visual content being output by the remote device, instructions representative of a new configuration of support for a reconfigurable item of furniture that in turn comprises at least a first reconfigurable portion comprising in turn a plurality of deformable cells, each respective one of the plurality of deformable cells having electrically operated valves to control a gas inflow to the respective cells from a gas inflow source, and a gas outflow from the respective cells, to thereby modify a pressure within respective cells, wherein the gas inflow source comprises a high-pressure reservoir cell among the plurality of deformable cells; and a transmitter operable to transmit the generated instructions to the reconfigurable item of furniture.
-
-
12. A method of reconfiguring an item of furniture comprising at least a first reconfigurable portion comprising in turn a plurality of deformable cells, each respective one of the plurality of deformable cells having electrically operated valves to control a gas inflow to the respective cells from a gas inflow source, and a gas outflow from the respective cells, to thereby modify a pressure within respective cells, wherein the gas inflow source comprises a high-pressure reservoir cell among the plurality of deformable cells, the item of furniture also comprising a control unit, the method comprising the steps of:
-
receiving instructions representative of a new configuration of support from a remote device; and transmitting control signals to a plurality of the electrically operated valves, including a valve of the high-pressure reservoir cell, to modify the pressure within given ones of the cells in a coordinated manner selected to generate the new configuration of support for a user of the furniture.
-
-
13. A method of reconfiguring an item of furniture that comprises at least a first reconfigurable portion comprising in turn a plurality of deformable cells, each respective one of the plurality of deformable cells having electrically operated valves to control a gas inflow to the respective cells from a gas inflow source, and a gas outflow from the respective cells, to thereby modify a pressure within respective cells, wherein the gas inflow source comprises a high-pressure reservoir cell among the plurality of deformable cells, the method comprising the steps of:
-
generating at a remote device instructions representative of a configuration of support for the item of furniture, responsive to current visual content being output by the remote device; and transmitting the generated instructions to a control unit of the reconfigurable item of furniture.
-
-
14. A non-transitory computer program product comprising a tangible computer readable medium storing computer instructions thereon, the computer instructions adapted to cause a computer to carry out a method of:
reconfiguring an item of furniture that comprises at least a first reconfigurable portion comprising in turn a plurality of deformable cells, each respective one of the plurality of deformable cells having electrically operated valves to control a gas inflow to the respective cells from a gas inflow source, and a gas outflow from the respective cells, to thereby modify a pressure within respective cells, wherein the gas inflow source comprises a high-pressure reservoir cell among the plurality of deformable cells, the reconfiguring step in turn comprising the steps of; generating instructions representative of a configuration of support for the item of furniture, responsive to current visual content being output by the remote device; and transmitting the generated instructions to a control unit of the reconfigurable item of furniture.
Specification