Digital Sofa

This was an artistic project to demonstrate any shape, any surface can give information through Leds, Screens, Buzz. Another Idea was to give two or more functions to a same furniture, to avoid space lose.

It's more a Proof of concept than a final product as I choose cheap materials to make this prototype come true.

Step 1: Buying Parts:

-Sofa:

I choose something equivalent to today's version of KLIPPAN in Ikea. It was little bit different but I think it's the same assembly and construction.

https://www.ikea.com/fr/fr/catalog/products/S09251...

-Display:

When I had a Sofa I had measures too and can search for a "Screen".

I found "LED Scrolling Message Display" that fit my budget and took one in eBay store.

The Led Message Displays show random pictures out of the box so I did not spend time and nerve on their old school software heritage from DOS. It is RGY and not RGB... An equivalent is linked bellow by eBay.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/40-x-6-3-In-RGY-Color-LED...

-Fabric:

Just went to my local fabric reseller to choose one (need to see and touch).

Step 2: Woodworking & Electronics:

Not enough photo here.

I disassembled the Led message Board to only have the PCB nude. Enclosure not usefull here as it becomes the sofa itself.

Some woodwork, jigsaw,cut and paste...

First re-Assembly to test the concept.

Step 3: Texturing:

Adding Foam everywhere.

Black Lycra makes the Led Message Display invisible when off.

About the cow fabric texture it was for fun :)

Step 4: Concept Live

Here you can see results.

Comments

[Triphazard]

I assume it is not very comfortable to sit back on, seeing as the LED screen is hard?

Its a great idea, and would be a great window/showroom display piece for a sofa company.

I have favorited this as i wonder if i could work out a way to have a transparent padding on the front side of the screen.

[YFO]

You assume right.
I workarounded this by placing a space between the Lycra and the LED Display (about 2-3cm). This was the first attempt. Was not so bad but ever not so comfortable a long time. In the second attempt I changed the way I fixed the Display so it was no more hard fixed but had foam in backside that let the Display move forward/back some more centimeters (this and the space before Lycra together). I will try to draw a sketch to illustrate it. Was ever not the best Sofa for your back...

Showrooms:
Yes I think it can make sense in expo, showrooms, events.
Today this can be more easy to do with a beamer and a mapping software without sacrificing your Sofa :))

Thanks for all your comments. Was a work I did long time ago and hope someone will do something better with actuals technologies. Love to see this with a software that detect where someone is sitting and adapt the visual!

[seamster]

Interesting project! Thanks for sharing : )

[YFO]

Thanks for your message!