Put your hands together: the office chair that parks itself

This week’s video comes from Japan where Nissan has incorporated park assist technology into office chairs that tidy themselves under tables and desks on command.

Using a similar principle that allows drivers to park their vehicles using automatic steering, the automaker has modified office chairs respond to hand claps.

In the automotive world, Intelligent Park Assist uses four cameras on the car’s front, rear, and both wing mirrors. According to Nissan, the system converts video footage from the cameras and composites a virtual bird’s-eye view image that allows automatic steering.

Similarly, the so-called Intelligent Parking Chair uses four cameras placed in four corners of a room’s ceiling where they locate the chair’s current position in order for the system to calculate the chair’s route to its original position.

In a company statement, Nissan said: “With this innovation in office technology, Japanese businessmen are now freed from the troublesome task of arranging chairs.”

More pertinently, they add: “The concept aims at increasing knowledge around the latest technology adopted by Nissan vehicles, while showing how this is slowly changing our daily lives.”