Ikea Is Introducing Robotic Furniture For People Who Live In Small Spaces (theverge.com) 121
Ikea has partnered with American furniture startup Ori Living to develop a new robotic furniture system for people living in small spaces. Called Rognan, the collection includes a large storage unit that can slide across a room via a touchpad to divide a room into two living spaces, a bed, desk, and a couch for people to pull out when needed. It will launch first in Hong Kong and Japan in 2020. The Verge reports: Rognan is built on Ori's robotic platform, and works with Ikea's Platsa line of storage furniture. It's also compatible with Ikea's Tradfri line of cabinet and wardrobe smart lighting. Ikea says the Rognan can save an extra eight square meters (about 86 square feet) of living space. That might not sound like much, but if you live in a tiny home, it could make all the difference. The Verge notes that Ori's line of automated furniture started as a concept from MIT's CityHome concept project in 2014. It launched for real estate developers and Airbnbs for $10,000 as Ori Systems.
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Ikea products are VERY POOR QUALITY, in my experience.
It's not about quality (or comfort, or aesthetics). Ikea is all about being cheap.
No one goes to Ikea expecting to find something that will last more than a year, be comfortable to sit on, or look nice. People go to find something cheap that will fill a temporary need they don't want to spend a lot of money on.
Sure, in the long run, Ikea furniture will cost you more as it needs to be replaced- but if you're looking for something cheap "for now" to get you by for a little while- that's where Ikea shines.
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"No one goes to Ikea expecting to find something that will last more than a year, be comfortable to sit on, or look nice."
Even a low quality bookshelf or table can last decades.
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Exactly. How often shit breaks depends a lot on the user. My cheap shit Billy book shelves are 32 years strong. It doesn't break because it's holding books lol. Same as computer desks etc. The things that are more likely to break are sofas and chairs, high stress usage if you're fat or love to sit on the arm-rests like an idiot.
Also Ikea things are more likely to break if one didn't take the time to build it right. There're many A-frames that's very tricky to line up. You can pressure screw them on b
Robotic (Score:5, Insightful)
So "robotic" means that it moves when you push buttons? Is a desk fan a robot?
Re:Robotic (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, it's a cheap headline grabbing trick. Like in every headline nowadays. Anyway, "motorized" would probably have been more accurate.
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Ikea would never assume the liability of truly robotic furniture that looked out for pets and children itself.
I guess I do have not one but two robotic fans at work and some beefy floor robot fans at home.
By the way don't buy floor pole fans with the round plastic bases. The base acts like a drum head and amplifies the motor to noisy levels. Return that POS and demand proper legs instead.
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"Why did you shut yourself off?"
"First law of robotics: a robot may not harm a human...and you were getting sedentary sitting there."
5th Element (Score:5, Funny)
Finally I can live in a single room like Bruce Willis in the 5th Element. My life's dream since Dorm Room Days.
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All we need are the handprints on the wall, when the local gendarmes decide to do a periodic search, and this would be perfect for living in US urban areas.
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I just saw Valerian, it's difficult to believe that the same guy who made fifth Element pushed out that turd.
Re: Robotic (Score:1)
It means that MIT patented the common sliding shelf found in libraries because... robots!
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I'm hearing "fifty-year-old thermostat"
Anyway it's 2019, the new Akchually conversations are all "AI is...."
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So "robotic" means that it moves when you push buttons? Is a desk fan a robot?
A desk fan is not a robot, but a space heater (with a fan) is.
A robot performs mechanical work controlled by some combination of sensors and programming. If it's directly controlled by the buttons, then it's just a machine. It it's automatic in some way requiring sensors, then yes it's a robot. E.g., if it converts from bedroom to living room mid morning when it senses no one is on the room, then maybe. I doubt it though.
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Sadly, limit switches and relays passes for robots. I suppose if they added a timer it woudl be "Mecha"
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According to Merriam Webster yes, According to Oxford no. Choose your english.
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Wall Buddy! Rearrange around Rigby's mess!
I can see some Swedes being into this. (Score:1)
For one meeeelion dollars.
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Oh great, first they took AI and turned it into a marketing term with a different meaning, now they are going to do the same with robotic.
What's worse is if your room has a Captcha test before moving the furniture. Since this is a "bot" it's going to fail.
Clever (Score:5, Interesting)
It's a simple idea, but a clever one.
"When you use your bed, you don't need your sofa. When you use your wardrobe, you don't need your bed".
It's unfortunate that we are heading towards smaller and smaller living spaces, but it's nice to see that IKEA are still innovating in that area, and showing us what can be done. The first of many such products, I guess. I expect to see these 'robots' doing more complex things in the future.
Re:Clever (Score:5, Informative)
Since a picture's worth a thousand words, the housing problem in Hong Kong is well illustrated by these two photo essays:
100 square feet apartments: Hong Kong's cubicle apartments: could you live like this? [theguardian.com]
18 square feet apartments (not a typo): Boxed in: life inside the 'coffin cubicles' of Hong Kong [theguardian.com]
I lived in Hong Kong for a year in 2013-14 and it's hard to imagine the density until you've experienced it for a while.
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What does the shithole that is Hong Kong have a damn thing to do with electrical furniture from Sweden? The idea is retarded. If you live in a closet and sleep on a closet organizer, THAT IS NOT A $4000 LIFESTYLE CHOICE!
Living in a dog cage in Hong Kong, that's a lifestyle choice! MOVE!
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What does the shithole that is Hong Kong have a damn thing to do with electrical furniture from Sweden?
A lot. You see by combing these two very different things from opposite sides of the globe we are able to very accurately determine the proportion of Slashdot readers who aren't able to read more than 2 sentences in a summary.
Think of this like an IQ test. Which you just failed. Despite the fact that the test itself has no pass marks. Congratulations AC you met all expectations.
Re: Clever (Score:1)
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"The survey involved 204 families living in subdivided flats in Kwai Chung, New Territories"
I currently live in Hong Kong. Some people live very small. the large mayority of people live compactly but not as bad as those extremes. My brother in law just bought a typical modern HK apartment. It is approx 300-350 square feet. For him and his wife. 1 bedroom, open kitchen.
Now of interest, many modern apartment buildings come with a clubhouse, where for examp
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My biggest problem with this is the noise-level I imagine there to be. I highly doubt that they build with high quality sound proofing in mind...
I have trouble sleeping as it is... I think I would go on a suicide killing spree sooner or later. Not just in Hong Kong, though. I cannot fathom living in any city.
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The average size might be 5m2, but most apartments were 16m2 back when I was looking (sleeping a family of 4-5). Always sad as a Gwai Lo not being able to live in a space that fits 4+ locals because it is too small.
You have to want to live in Hong Kong for it to be worthwhile. For me, I’ll stick to visiting now; I paid my dues. (I do love the fact that you can go over to Big Wave Bay though and you are in a completely different world.)
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Jesus, what do they do with their kids (Score:2)
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Clever? Stupid.
Find ways to work remotely and live a better life.
I live in a 7000 sq. foot house I paid $375k CAD for. I have gigabit fiber, and I work largely remotely .. when I want.
I can easily retire when I want.
Living in those environments is my idea of hell on earth.
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Clever? Stupid.
Find ways to work remotely and live a better life.
I live in a 7000 sq. foot house I paid $375k CAD for. I have gigabit fiber, and I work largely remotely .. when I want.
I can easily retire when I want.
Living in those environments is my idea of hell on earth.
Ahhh so you're in Canada, a country of 10million sqkm making it a cool 10,000 times larger than HongKong. So your idea of working remotely just involves walking across the border to the USA, and buying a house in that other country, and just continuing to work from back home? Easy right? I mean it's not like it's difficult for unskilled migrants to magically end up in another country while deriving foreign income, we all know there's no barrier of entry into the USA. /sarcasm
Your post: Clever? Stupid!
Re: Clever (Score:2)
Your ignorance of both geography and immigration policy are funny.
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We're adding more and more humans to the planet. It's not getting any better. The only place that population decrease is happening is in Europe and Japan. It's one thing to manage a planet with 1 billion or 3 billion humans on it. We have 7 billion and the planet is bursting at the seams with humans.
In 1965 a United Nations report predicted that the world's population would rise to 5.7 billion by 1995. It did.
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"When you use your bed, you don't need your sofa. When you use your wardrobe, you don't need your bed".
That's fine if you are single with no kids and want to stay that way.
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I'm not sure extremely small and impractical apartments are an ideal form of population control, TBH.
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The problem with small apartments is that there tends not to be much noise isolation, i.e. the neighbours can hear you having sex. For that reason Love Hotels are very common in Japan. Basically a room you can rent for a few hours at a time. Mostly very clean and well maintained.
That does two things. First, the best things in life aren't free any more, the rooms start from maybe $40 for a couple of hours and are typically double that for a basic one. Second, the rooms come with complementary condoms.
Anyway,
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Enforcing it isn't a bad thing, though. In a small space, keeping it clear of clutter can make it look that big bigger, and can also make it much less depressing. So if this enforces you to keep one area free of clutter, it will help with your mood also.
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It's unfortunate that we are heading towards smaller and smaller living spaces
I used to think that. In Australia I had a house with a bigger back deck than the entire European apartment I have now. I don't miss that house. It was high maintenance, it was ... pointless. I found that the way people live obeys the idea laws of gasses: they will expand to fill available space.
Nowadays I just think back on how much useless shit I had and how much space I wasted. This of course was just increased the maintainable surface area. Vacuuming took twice as long wiping down the kitchen took twice
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Now THAT is interesting.
I would have never thought that different countries, especially European vs American fridges would be of significantly different sizes.
I kinda thought in general a normal sized kitchen refrigerator was pretty much a common thing size and capacity wise.
From what I was shopping for my last fridge, I found these to be the general dimensions commo
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Now THAT is interesting.
I would have never thought that different countries, especially European vs American fridges would be of significantly different sizes.
Fridge sizes are different because by and large, shopping habits are different. Americans tend to buy a week's worth of groceries at a time, whereas in Europe it is much more common to buy as you need for the upcoming meal. Then there are a few other things you might not think about... one example is eggs.
For aesthetics, egg shells are more thoroughly cleaned in the US giving a nice smooth unblemished egg shell... which looks a lot nicer, but it washes off the natural protective coating. As a result, egg
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Interesting. Hmm, I just don't have enough time during the week to spend time shopping every day for the meal. LOL, some times I actually do my weekly shopping at Costco.....I love to buy and cook in bulk and have leftovers to work with during the week so I don't even have to cook fresh
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That's why Europeans and Americans shop different. Americans make it a weekly ritual to the supermarket which is a huge store of a million square feet with everything. And they spend at least an hour if not two
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Yes, but not only are you shopping daily, you have to COOK daily too?
I usually buy my stuff on Saturday or Friday....I usually look at the weekly mailers to see t
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It's a simple idea, but a clever one.
Quite the opposite: imaginative but over-complicated; certainly destined to be one of those ideas* that gets laughed at... conclusion: unclever. Another^Apparently someone thinks that all Scandinavian manufacturers famous for their brightly-colored, plastic products should try to make a lateral move into robotics... that's what I call unimaginative.
It's not clever. It's utter fuckin retarded. (Score:2)
"When you use your bed, you don't need your sofa. When you use your wardrobe, you don't need your bed".
That quote from the article basically sums up the core of ALL terrible design and engineering. EVER.
I.e. Instead of designing FOR humans and engineering a solution to a problem experienced by humans, it is a creed of TRAINING THE HUMAN TO ADAPT TO THE FANCY NEW MACHINE FOR NO OTHER REASON BUT NOVELTY.
Which is not only arrogant demeaning to human existence by asshole designers and engineers who themselves either never have to live with the technological horrors they construct OR THEY BELIEVE THAT THEY ENJOY
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"It's unfortunate that we are heading towards smaller and smaller living spaces"
Why is it unfortunate? Should we all have 5000sf McMansions? You can have it if you want it, but I like smaller spaces. Less to maintain, clean, etc. I don't want to live in a 8x8 dorm setup, but most people (outside of San Fran/LA/Tokyo/NYC) have way more space than than need and literally waste energy building/heating/cooling giant spaces.
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Yes, solutions exist. This doesn't mean they are the best solutions.
And now more solutions exist. And this will lead to more solutions again.
This is a problem that can keep being solved, and each solution can be better than previous ones.
Re: Clever (Score:1)
Ori is marketing, not new technology. These kinds of furniture systems have been around forever.
Ikea! (Score:2)
And they sell things for apartments smaller than mine [youtube.com]
As if there were apartments smaller than mine
Ikea: Just some oak and some pine and a handful of Norsemen
Ikea: Selling furniture for college kids and divorced men
Expensive is not an option. (Score:2, Interesting)
If you have a cramped apartment, it is very likely you have little money to spare.
So paying a premium for Transformer furniture is not an option.
If those people had that kind of money, they'd first find a bigger apartment, before resorting to such measures.
Besides: A few simple mechanics, like a couch that can turn into a *proper* bed, tables that fold up against the wall, storage space up on the wall, right to the ceiling, and chairs you can put on top of each other are all cheap and much simpler solutions
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If those people had that kind of money, they'd first find a bigger apartment, before resorting to such measures.
No they wouldn't. Not everyone is fascinated by large living areas. If you have an apartment large enough to fit this thing in, you're paying "American Dream" house prices complete with white picket fence in HongKong.
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I don’t have current prices, but the cost per square foot of an apartment in Hong Kong is on the order of $10,000. 83 Square feet saved is close to a million dollars savings in the cost of a home. I’d say it is worth $4k in that case.
Even at a cost of $50/SF, you can come out ahead.
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You'd buy transforming furniture to save money on rent by renting a smaller place. It would easily pay for itself in less than two years in a high rent area. Then the next 4 years after that you save another $20000 or more.
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If you have a cramped apartment, it is very likely you have little money to spare.
Umm:
It will launch first in Hong Kong and Japan in 2020
We know a couple in Hong Kong who do quite well financially. Their apartment is bizarrely small and cost a fortune. They'll probably be lined up for stuff like this.
Re: Expensive is not an option. (Score:1)
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So get a UPS for your furniture, you luddite!
Theoretical vs. Practical. (Score:2)
Theoretically, it's sound. Practically, you better pray you don't hurt yourself somehow, from work or play, and notice what a stupid idea it was to buy these. It's always nice and well when you're totally healthy. HK also has a humidity concern. Lived in both Canada and HK I see the huge difference humidity makes. Stuff rots way faster in HK. The wheels and hinges these thing's on won't last as long as in Sweden. And when they break that's when you shake heads.
And lastly, seriously, when you don't li
You build it yourself, it has a screw missing... (Score:2, Funny)
And it goes bonkers and murders you in your sleep!
Not only for small spaces (Score:2)
its too complicated (Score:2)
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Would you really want to pull down and dress a Murphy Bed every day? This covers both the bed and couch functions in a way that lives with you rather than forcing continuous compromises.
The only challenge is if two people are using the space full time. Great for a guest, miserable with a spouse or a kid.
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Aaah, the joys of being young and single. I remember when I felt the same.
I could live with a side pivot murphy bed for a man cave, but not as my primary bed. Tempurpedic is too hard to give up.
Wasn’t this concept posted a long time ago? (Score:2)
The version of the story that I vaguely remember is about a Hong Kong architect that made a manual version of this work many years ago. Time might be fuzzy now, but it seems like more than 5 years ago. Functionally it seems very similar to the Ori/Ikea solution, but the original had aa few other built-in toys if I remember correctly.
As for touchscreen functionality and automating it (especially the safety functions), it is a nice step forward. Should sell well in places with tight living quarters.
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If you Google for stuff like "tiny house transforms" on the tube then you will find scores of Swiss army houses with all kinds of stuff that pulls out or folds down, so that the same space can have many different purposes. There is no need whatsoever to use robotics. Just put sliding things on quality rollers, and counterweight the tilting bits, or raise them with air cylinders. This has the added advantage of continuing to work even during an extended power outage.
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Video here [youtube.com].
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Awesome, thanks. That was the one— more different than this than i had remembered, but it does help someone appreciate how motorization and automation can improve the experience.
great until they break (Score:2)
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this thing doesn't even need "robotics", put it on wheels with foot-settable brake.