
Robot Furniture - jeffreyrogers
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/24/style/robot-furniture-beep-beep-boop.html
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claudiulodro
This is an interesting idea if you have high ceilings. In my experience, a
room small enough to make this system worth using would also have low
ceilings. My ceilings are 8 ft, so unless the proposed bed and ceiling boxes
are less than 2 feet tall I'm going to be hitting my head on them all the
time.

To be honest, this seems like the Juicero of furniture: an expensive tech
solution to a non-tech problem. The problem is solved for a fraction of the
cost with a daybed that has storage underneath.[1] It is, after all, still a
combination sleep/living area with storage room for clothes.

As someone working on a furniture solution for small spaces and with a history
of professional furniture building, turning furniture into built-in moving
electronics is IMO not the solution:

1\. It increases the cost of the furniture to be out of the range of your
customers, who are typically in a small space because they do not have a ton
of extra money.

2\. Good luck getting your landlord to approve bolting large furniture to your
ceiling, and what do you do when you move?

[1]
[https://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/70320135/](https://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/70320135/)

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jonknee
> Good luck getting your landlord to approve bolting large furniture to your
> ceiling, and what do you do when you move?

The article sounds like this is a feature of the apartment (to help make up
for small unit sizes).

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claudiulodro
In that case, good luck getting your landlord out to fix the bed if it gets
stuck in the ceiling! :)

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jonknee
Luxury apartment buildings typically have pretty good maintenance
capabilities. You already rely on them to be able and cook, go to the
restroom, take a shower, etc.

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xg15
But if you have a luxury apartment, it's likely large enough for traditional
furniture.

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jonknee
Why is that? Luxury doesn't equal size, especially in a dense urban area. Did
you read the article? What else do you call a small, expensive apartment with
tons of amenities that also contains robotic furniture?

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elicash
[http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/aroundthemall/2009/04/curato...](http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/aroundthemall/2009/04/curator-
finds-murphy-beds-place-in-american-history/)

"Inventor William Lawrence Murphy (1856-1957) began tinkering with hideaway
beds while living in a one-room apartment in San Francisco in the late 19th
century. He was falling for a young opera singer and courting customs at that
time would not permit a lady to enter a gentleman’s bedroom. But according to
family legend, Murphy’s limited finances and a strict moral code didn’t spoil
his chance at love. His invention allowed him to stow his bed in his closet,
transforming his one-room apartment from a bedroom into a parlor.

"The couple married in 1900."

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gwern
On the other hand, consider the fate of
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Midgley_Jr](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Midgley_Jr).
, who survived his own inventions of CFCs and leaded gasoline (leading to lead
poisoning), only to succumb to his invention of furniture:

> In 1940, at the age of 51, Midgley contracted poliomyelitis, which left him
> severely disabled. He devised an elaborate system of ropes and pulleys to
> help others lift him from bed. In 1944, he was entangled in the device and
> died of strangulation.[15][16][17]

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niftich
Beds take up a lot of floor area, but lifting them off the floor with
expensive machinery you must install in your ceiling is hardly a compelling
solution.

It's the prevalence of innerspring mattresses that's responsible for
contemporary bedding being unwieldy. An innerspring mattress is constructed to
predetermined form factor, and is resistant to folding or rolling or other
mechanical ways of conserving space. Getting it out of the way means
manipulating the entire unit as one, which absent a pulley system installed in
your ceiling typically means rotating it onto a weak edge, where it can barely
remain upright; this can be rectified by a platform that holds that the
mattress in place while it is pivoted upright into a recess in the wall, in an
established, if outdated design.

If you forego monolithic innerspring mattresses, you have vastly more options
in moving bedding when it's not needed.

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fermienrico
"you must install in your ceiling is hardly a compelling solution." \- why? we
have "expensive" machinery to open our garage doors. Why specifically do you
think it is not a compelling solution?

I personally think this is a great idea as ceilings are useless for the most
part and that space can be used for something else - like storing the entire
bed.

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cmontella
> ceilings are useless for the most part

I would say they are underutilized. Ceilings are certainly useful for
preventing rain from falling on our heads ;)

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hannasanarion
Those are roofs. Ceilings are basically just for looks.

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akiselev
And for maintaining a proper vapor barrier and insulation - two things rather
critical to asset value and livability respectively, in most climates.

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quizme2000
I've watched this
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CI3Zo3Ax494](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CI3Zo3Ax494)
on "This Old House" years ago and it also stood out as really well designed,
instead of a product looking for a problem to solve. The issue is always cost
but this system seemed more on track with reality.

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tomatotomato37
I guess I'm not the only one who thought the next step for home furnishings
was giving them the ability to break down at the worst possible time.

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andbberger
This meme seems to crop up every couple years, but AFAIK there is no
affordable way to obtain such products.

Haven't found anyone who actually sells beds that retract into the ceiling.
[https://resourcefurniture.com/](https://resourcefurniture.com/) sells nicely
designed but crushingly expensive murphy bed type things.

Anyone know where I can get a retractable bed set up for less than a thousand?

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FiatLuxDave
This reminds me of a very cool apartment I visited many years ago. I used to
party with some SCAD kids in Savannah. Two interior design majors I knew had
gotten themselves a small apartment and a very tolerant landlord. The bedroom
was amazing! The bed hung from the ceiling on strong cables, similar to the
bed in the article, but the sleeping position was about 0.8 meters high rather
than on the floor. In addition, the floor of the room was not flat, but made
up of various levels of platforms. The lounge chair was up in one of the upper
corners of the room, and you could watch the TV mounted at the same level over
the heads of people occupying the floor space.

They also had a stripper pole in the front room, which was great for parties.
But it was the bedroom with the hanging bed which really impressed me.

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brink
Will I be able to sleep in my bed during a power outage?

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Cyphase
Sure, if you can reach the mechanical release.

I'd be more worried about DoS[0] attacks against the cloud service that
prevent me from using the app to call down my bed and other furniture. Or
someone hacking in and pulling my bed up with me in it. What a nightmare that
would be.

[0] Denial of Sleep

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justifier
i built something similar for a home project

i ended up taking it down due to concern of having all of that weight above me

when a huge mass is suspended above you the potential gravitational energy
becomes very palapable

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pg_bot
While this is an interesting curiosity, it is inferior to the Murphy bed.
People move, and like to rearrange their furniture in their own places. The
straps are unpleasant to look at, and likely have a higher failure rate due to
their complexity.

There is no way this will see mass adoption, if that's their goal I think they
should do more customer research.

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singularity2001
who doesn't want to stand below a 200kg Alexa-controlled piece of furniture
hanging from the ceiling. Alexa drop it!

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buboard
Polymorphic homes maybe, but what's robotic about these? A robot would self-
clean for example.

this accomplishes the same and doesnt require any motors:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juWaO5TJS00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juWaO5TJS00)

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Animats
Nissan did build some robotic office chairs.[1] They rearrange themselves for
meetings.

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLEgvD7iG-M](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLEgvD7iG-M)

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nikkiofearth
i wish. thats staged

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dwighttk
This sounds great until you realize you have to put every non-robotic thing
away into its tiny little container before you can do anything pertaining to
changing the room around.

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mattferderer
"YES! More things to bump my head into!" \- Tall People

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nikkiofearth
LOL! as a short person, I always forget this.

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paul7986
Could it not come crashing down upon you?

"I wanted to sit on my couch, but it fell and nearly killed me... damn robot
furniture."

~~~
adrianmonk
It could, but it shouldn't if properly made.

For one thing, it's got 4 straps. If any 3 straps or any two opposing corner
straps are intact, then it should probably not fall down. So there's some
redundancy.

Aside from that, use a worm drive[1] between the motor and the pulleys. As
long as the gearbox is intact, the weight of the furniture won't be able to
turn the output gear.

If you want more assurance than that, put some kind of extra brake or lock on
the pulleys or drive shaft. Maybe a pawl[2].

[1]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worm_drive](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worm_drive)

[2]: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pawl](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pawl)

