Herman Miller planning "desk of the future"

High-end furniture maker Herman Miller looks to be doing its best to cut down on the ever-increasing nuisance of gadget clutter, with Reuters reporting that the company has licensed Fulton Innovation's eCoupled technology to let you recharge various electronic devices simply plopping them down on your (presumably pricey) desk. The technology (shown here in decidedly Herman Miller-form) works by transferring power through a magnetic field that'll charge anything that comes in contact with it; we assume it also involves some sort of adapter for your respective devices. Of course, cordless charging isn't an entirely new concept, with HP recently showing off some of its own ideas for juiced-up furniture, and Splashpower talking up its charge-on-contact system for a few years now. We guess we'll just have to wait and see if this new power-happy desk becomes the same status symbol for the Web 2.0 crowd that Herman Miller's Aeron chair was back in Web 1.0 days -- assuming we haven't moved on to Web 3.0 by the time the desk actually comes out, that is.

[Via textually.org]

[Patrick @ Jan 19th 2007 4:08PM]

I don't understand why there or so many stories about wireless charging all the sudden; it isn't even that exciting. Sonicare has been doing it w/ their toothbrushes for years and nobody cared.

Besides, the only gadget you are gonna carry come June is the "iPhone" anyway (sarcasm), how hard is it to plug in one cable?

[dgary1980 @ Jan 19th 2007 4:13PM]

I HATE the Aeron I'm forced to use, damned uncomfortable compared to a lesser prices layzboy

[John @ Jan 19th 2007 4:42PM]

Does anyone know if these electromagnetic rechargers affect magnetic storage media, like credit cards, flash drives, etc? It would suck if my iPod got wiped because it got too close to my magnetic desk.

[jared @ Jan 19th 2007 5:40PM]

so i guess the desk of the future is going to be made out of laminated plywood and cost $4k

[ainm @ Jan 19th 2007 6:12PM]

That's not a "decidedly Herman Miller-form" you're looking at but seems to be a cutaway of the car-console version shown at CES.

[mike @ Jan 19th 2007 6:36PM]

I've always wondered how well inductive charging works with a device that uses magnetic storage. I think I'll let someone else try it first.

[I LOVE THE CAPS LOCK KEY @ Jan 20th 2007 1:09AM]

If it's Herman Miller, you can bet your bottom dollar that it will be over priced and extremely painful and uncomfortable to use. Now would you please excuse me, I have to get up and move around because my Aeron Chair is hurting my back!

[mugczar @ Jan 20th 2007 8:54PM]

[scenario 8a]

yay, my new herman miller desk has arrived and is in place! la la la, typing at my computer. i think i'll buy a new CD. credit card number ... i can never remember.

[reaches into pocket for wallet, puts on desk]

oh, yeah. type type type. now i think i'll go grocery shopping. shop shop shop.

[swipes credit card at checkout]

sorry, sir. it didn't go through.
what? how could that be?

[swipes again. and again]

sir, you're holding up the line ...

[James Knight @ Mar 27th 2007 2:56PM]

Seems that this site http://www.furniturehomedelivery will soon define the furniture of office furniture. just discovered that they have represent several stores and up to date pieces.

[Byran Heigh @ Mar 29th 2007 3:11AM]

Perhaps its the furniture of furniture. our company just bought furniture from www.buildbedroom.com, kinda interesting that the design of furniture has changes drastically.