Los Angeles-based architect Greg Lynn and his new invention might have just changed sports medicine for the future.
The device, known as the Microclimate chair, was built for Nike’s Nature in Motion exhibition displayed recently at Milan’s Design Week.
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Lynn has come out and said that the design of the chair was a representation of integrating intelligence and furniture; not a chair to just be sold commercially.
However, the features and potential uses could attract professional teams and athletes alike to invest in the chair.
Features
The basic function of the Microclimate chair is to cool certain parts of the body while keeping other parts warm.
The ability of the chair to do this comes from its seventy thermoelectric devices which are embedded in material made of a combination of carbon tape and carbon weave.
The thermoelectric devices heat up and cool down based on information that the sensors receive. The direction of the current running through the devices is one of the factors that determines which part of the chair will cool and which will remain heated.
Along the outside of the chair runs a tube that distributes air to negate any humidity around the seated athlete.
Uses
While the design and features of this chair is unlike anything we have seen before the main question is the practicality.
Lynn has stated that the chair would be useful in sports that require short periods of rest and short bursts. This limits the scope of sports that this technology will be useful for.
Basketball is one sport in which the Microclimate chair would be effective due to the frequent substitutions and ease of player re-entry. The only issue here would be the logistics of fitting multiple chairs on the sideline.
Soccer is another sport that this chair could be useful using the technology as a way to warm up incoming substitutes. Another benefit would be for outgoing players as they begin their post game recovery without having to leave the pitch.
Injury prevention and recovery for athletes have become the newest trend in sports. However, Nike and Lynn might have ushered in a new era of sports medicine by uncovering a new and more casual method.