This Standing Desk Knows When You Need to Sit Down


The line between robot and object is ever thinning. Computers have replaced our phones, watches and soon, our glasses — and it's possible our desks are not far behind.

Los Angeles-based company Stir announced the Stir Kinetic Desk on Thursday, an adjustable-height desk with a tiny computer brain inside. While the concept of an adjustable-height desk isn't new (and such desks are provided to employees by some larger tech companies), the Stir goes a step further. The adjustment is mechanical — to raise or lower the desk height, just double-tap a touch screen — and the desk will learn your habits.


Standing desks are rising in popularity, due to research that suggests sitting for eight hours each day can shave years off our lives. Many early adopters, however, merely noticed that it is easier to concentrate when standing, or having the option to sit or stand. But many times the hassle of raising a desk up and down gets in the way of actually benefitting from its features.

Stir founder and CEO, JP Labrosse, has a background in mechanical engineering and was on the original iPod team. Not surprisingly, the Stir looks like something out of an Apple store. It has dual outlet caves, with four AC and two USB ports on each side. The desk comes in a clean black or white with a colorful twist — the underside of the desk will come in blue, red, green or charcoal, not unlike the new iPhone 5C.


The data generated by Stir includes the amount of time spent sitting or standing, but a built-in Wi-Fi and bluetooth connection pave the way for more. Labrosse says he hopes to integrate the desk with other quantitative self gadgets users might be wearing. The FitBit is one example. Perhaps on the mornings that you run, you prefer to sit in the morning but get antsy later in the afternoon. If Stir were to integrate your FitBit data, it could learn the relationship between your morning run and desk habits and behave accordingly.

But there's no purpose in Stir knowing your standing preferences unless it can initiate the action. That's where a feature called "whisperbreath" comes in.


Consider all the ways your various gadgets are able to notify you: A ring tone, a vibration, a blinking light or text alert — all things that commonly disrupt work. If our desk added one more disruption to our work lives, it might have some of us running for that secluded cabin in the mountains, just to get some work done. That's why Stir came up with a unique way for the desk to tell its user that it's time to stand up. The desk rises then falls one inch, a movement that is noticeable but can easily be ignored, if you're in the middle of something. The movement is timed to match the breath of a human at rest.

"We want to make the world's most lovable desk," Labrosse says.

The Stir Kinetic Desk will retail at $3,890. Creating your own standing desk can be done at a fairly reasonable price, but you may have to commit to standing all day. A basic adjustable-height desk on the cheaper end comes from GeekDesk, retailing between $749 and $985.

Images: Stir

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