US 5,170,364 · Granted 1992-12-08
The Smart Chair That Adjusts Itself to Fit Your Body
Imagine a chair that knows exactly where your body is pressing down and automatically reshapes itself to be more comfortable. This patent describes a seat with built-in pressure sensors that measure how your weight is distributed, then use motors to shift the shape until it feels just right.
The plain-English version
What it protects
The claim covers an electronic feedback system embedded in furniture like chairs or beds that uses an array of pressure sensors to map where a user's weight lands, processes that data through a computer chip, and automatically activates mechanical adjusters (servo-mechanisms) to reshape the surface so weight is distributed evenly across defined zones. What's protected here is the specific combination of sensing the pressure distribution, comparing it to a target comfort range, and then dynamically adjusting the surface geometry in response.
Why it matters
This patent represents an early approach to active comfort engineering in furniture. Rather than relying on passive foam or springs, it introduces a closed-loop system where the seat itself responds to your body in real time. For manufacturers, this opens the door to premium ergonomic products that adapt rather than stay static, potentially reducing fatigue and pressure injuries during long sitting sessions.
Real-world use
You might encounter this technology in high-end office chairs or medical beds designed to prevent bedsores by constantly redistributing pressure as you shift position.
Original USPTO abstract
An electronic system for adjusting a load bearing surface such as a chair or bed to provide a desired level of comfort comprises an array of pressure sensors located within the load bearing surface. The pressure sensors generate data indicating the actual distribution of pressure exerted by a user on the load bearing surface. An electronic processor processes the data generated by the array of pressure sensors. The processor compares the fraction of total load exerted on each of a plurality of regions of the load bearing surface with a desired range for each region. If the fraction of total load for any region is not within the desired range, a servo-mechanism is activated to change the shape of the load bearing surface so that the fraction of total load on each region is within the desired range, so as to provide a desired level of comfort to the user.
Patent details
- Publication number
- US 5,170,364
- Filing date
- 1990-12-06
- Grant date
- 1992-12-08
- Assignee
- Biomechanics Corporation Of America
- Inventor(s)
- GROSS; CLIFFORD M., BANAAG; JOSE, GOONETILLEKE; RAVI, NAIR; CHANDRA
- CPC class
- A47C31/126
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