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Toys It's funny. Laugh. Science Technology

Smart Sofa Recognizes Occupants by Weight 353

Posted by michael from the chubby-hubby dept.
I am Kobayashi writes "According to CNN.com scientists at Trinity College in Dublin have created my dream couch. And yes, I admit to being a couch potato... Apparently the couch can be programmed with a personal greeting (it recognizes you by weight), and the scientists hope that it will one day be able to automatically tune to your favorite television programs, order you take out food, and control other household appliances."
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Smart Sofa Recognizes Occupants by Weight More

Smart Sofa Recognizes Occupants by Weight

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  • Hi, Cindy, want the same as last time? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 24, 2003 @12:45AM (#7040763)
    "Cindy? Who is Cindy? No, honest honey, I have no idea who Cindy is. What's this couch talking about! ?"

  • Recognizing by weight (Score:5, Funny)

    by TWX ( 665546 ) on Wednesday September 24, 2003 @12:45AM (#7040764)
    It won't be able to recognize you by weight if it continues to do absolutely everything for you, like ordering food and changing the channel on the TV without requiring you to get up...

    I wonder if they built an AI into it to intelligently determine who the occupant is by weight gain over time...

    • Re:Recognizing by weight (Score:5, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 24, 2003 @12:50AM (#7040803)
      changing the channel on the TV without requiring you to get up...

      Most people can already do this. They use this amazing invention called a remote control.
    • The current version must have a low-end processor which can only compensate for slow changes in your weight; see quote from researcher:
      "We're hoping that people's weight won't vary so quickly," [researcher Haahr] said. "But it is something we'll have to deal with."
      I'm sure they'll upgrade it in the next version if the chair becomes sufficiently popular. (Kinda like Moore's Law, but for BMI.)
      • "We're hoping that people's weight won't vary so quickly."

        It's going to go up pretty damn quick if the guy doesn't have to leave the couch for anything but the bathroom.

        I can veg out with the best of them, but this? How fricking lazy do you have to be? This thing will tune to your favorite shows automatically. Wow. You don't even have to channel surf for yourself anymore. This is pretty sad.

    • What would the formula for that be though...?

      x = fast food, y = fat content, z = time unites, p = metabolizm.

      x * y - p * 3.14^z = weight gain

      now, when this couch starts getting serious use it would look something like...

      32 / .65 - .40 * 3.14^1u = much weight

      Now... The metabolizm would possibly go up as well as the fat content go down if u could also order pr0n through the same means... that would be a new varialbe p0...

    • Re:Recognizing by weight (Score:5, Interesting)

      by panaceaa ( 205396 ) on Wednesday September 24, 2003 @12:59AM (#7040863) Homepage Journal
      Also, people's weight changes throughout the day. People eat, go to the bathroom, and also generally weigh more during the evening than average. Is the couch going to have a programmed clock for that?

      If I were a scientist, I'd try to identify people based on their butt prints!

      • butt print... (Score:3, Interesting)

        by TWX ( 665546 )
        Well, as unglamourous as a "butt print" is, it would be interesting to see if one can be identified by how one's pressure applies. Different parts push harder due to shape and posture, so if you happen to sit more on your left hip than on your right it should show...

        Let's just hope that the software doesn't create a visual 3d model of someone's ass as a rendered image. *shudder*

        • Re:butt print... (Score:5, Interesting)

          by panaceaa ( 205396 ) on Wednesday September 24, 2003 @02:00AM (#7041142) Homepage Journal
          If people can be identified to some degree by weight alone, I'm sure that having a pressure-sensitive map of someone's weight distribution (butt print) could only be more accurate. Also, you can learn something identifiable by how specific people slouch or lie down, how much they lean back, and other behavioral traits like antsiness. Though detecting these traits would be far more complicated than putting a scale under each pillow.

          Maybe the pillows wouldn't detect weight itself, but the shape of the imprentation using lots of small censors that detect motion. That motion could be integrated (calculus) to calculate their current position. The individual data points could be used together to figure out someone's current position, how their weight is distributed, and how much they move around over time. However, are there affordable censors that can do that? Alternatively, are there censors that can somehow know their absolute location rather than using calculus?
      • well, i think that there is a certain frame within the weight has to lie so that this couch can recognize you. otherwise it would be funny that, each time you change you clothes (say from t-shirts & shorts to a full sized smoking) the couch gets confused and asks for the new username.
      • If I were a scientist, I'd try to identify people based on their butt prints!

        No two skid marks are the same, I suppose.
        • I was tempted to mention that butt-print detecting would be fooled by people shitting their pants, but decided it was too risque.

          In that case, maybe identifying by weight would be more accurate: no weight change! Maybe that's why they're targeting hospitals for the technology?

  • Great idea (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 24, 2003 @12:45AM (#7040765)
    Science: Pushing the boundaries of sloth, one invention at a time.

    • Re:Great idea (Score:5, Funny)

      by panaceaa ( 205396 ) on Wednesday September 24, 2003 @01:17AM (#7040959) Homepage Journal
      A bit off-topic, but has anyone noticed that stores always call couches "sofas" and never "couches?" Examples: Ikea [ikea-usa.com], Pottery Barn [potterybarn.com], Restoration Hardware [restorationhardware.com], Crate & Barrel [crateandbarrel.com] and even Walmart [walmart.com]! When recently looking to buy a new couch, I couldn't find a major site that sold "couches."

      I think company's sell "sofas" because "couches" are perceived as things slothy people buy. Lazy people "lounge on the couch" on the weekends. The American culture always uses the word "couch" to describe unmotivated people's television watching habits.

      But in the eyes of marketers, consumers must see sofas as possessions of elegant, worldly people who are out and about. Motivated, outgoing people buy "sofas" to decorate their posh interiors! "No couches for me, sir, I want a sofa!"
      • Here in Canada, the proper name for a couch, is a chesterfield. although, I still call it a couch. I don't know many people who use the word sofa. But now that I think about it, the word sofa is used a lot in sales. check out this site [harvard.edu] for a list of other interesting canadian words.
        • i think chesterfield is a type of couch. i think of on old english style leather couch. This seems similar to some parts of america calling soft drinks, cokes. as in:
          A: Get me a coke.
          B: sure, what kind
          A: how about mountain dew

    • As long as it doesn't complain when I let one rip. Ah, well.

      Perhaps I could modify one to yell out "Phheewww! That stinks!" for the mother-in-law when she cuts an SBD and looks at me like I did it.

  • This particular model... (Score:5, Funny)

    by JasonMaggini ( 190142 ) on Wednesday September 24, 2003 @12:47AM (#7040774)
    ...will be released as the La-Z-Homer 3000.

  • Weight fluctuates and people can weigh the same (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Dancin_Santa ( 265275 ) <DancinSanta@gmail.com> on Wednesday September 24, 2003 @12:47AM (#7040775) Journal
    And is it really a good idea to have furniture that can positively ID you?
    • Now I have an extra alibi.

      "Look at my Tivo usage logs - I was watching TV at that time!" and "Check the couch! The couch doesn't lie! But I was lying - on the couch!"

      Why hasn't Law & Order or any other cop show done an episode where a suspect is ruled out because they were watching Tivo at the time of the crime as proven by the logs on the PVR and his intelligent couch. Sheesh.

      In my perfect world you end that episode showing the super smart computer person putting a timer delay on a pronto remote con
    • I was expecting a lot of fat jokes and knee-jerk "this won't work" trolls on this story, but even I didn't expect anyone to work in "The Orwellian Connection." Congrats.

  • Intelligent couch? (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 24, 2003 @12:47AM (#7040778)
    I, for one, welcome our new sofa overlords.

  • Inaccuracies in weight recognition? (Score:5, Funny)

    by zapp ( 201236 ) on Wednesday September 24, 2003 @12:48AM (#7040783)
    So say I sit down with my backpack on may lap, it gets me wrong. Or if a kid/cat/dog jumps on my lap.

    Or kids jump on the couch and break it.

    Or 2 kids sit next to each other in the space it takes to fit me, and the TV tunes it to my favorite porn station

    or I lose a few pounds and it tunes me in to my wife's favorite shows...

    This sounds pretty crappy to me :)

  • I hope this part is a joke... (Score:3, Informative)

    by rokzy ( 687636 ) on Wednesday September 24, 2003 @12:48AM (#7040792)
    "order you take out food"

    this kind of automatic buying stuff (like MS .net services) is absolute bullshit and a million times more effort than it's worth.
  • "We're hoping that people's weight won't vary so quickly," he said. "But it is something we'll have to deal with."
    This will be tough to handle in the US which is the home of fad diets. Also what happens if you have roommates that are roughly the same weight as you?

    Sounds like a cool idea though...
    • Also what happens if you have roommates that are roughly the same weight as you?

      Just a thought (as a good slashdotter, I didn't actually read the article, so I'm just assuming they don't say anything about it), but I would suspect that different people sit differently. Some people sit up straight, some sprawl back, etc. I wonder if people's sitting positions could be tracked as well, in order to make a determination if weight is ambiguous.

  • I'm not impressed. (Score:5, Informative)

    by mmoncur ( 229199 ) * on Wednesday September 24, 2003 @12:49AM (#7040800) Homepage
    So... it's an uncomfortable couch with a $10 digital scale built in?

    And they got on CNN? Obviously the rest of us just aren't trying hard enough.

    Real geeks don't want that couch, they want funny-looking ergonomic sofas [bodywave.co.uk] or something with a built-in stereo and drink holder. ...or a couch made of mouse pads [rit.edu].

  • Read the article... (Score:5, Informative)

    by attemptedgoalie ( 634133 ) on Wednesday September 24, 2003 @12:51AM (#7040809)
    Before many of you run amok, and make fun of heavy people, please read the article.

    It's in development, and has plans to be used to assist the elderly and those in hospitals.

    This is not some way to keep people indoors, or track their TV habits, or any of the other conspiracy baloney that will sure to be brought up soon.

    • Not quite (Score:3, Insightful)

      by tessaiga ( 697968 )

      Before many of you run amok, and make fun of heavy people, please read the article. It's in development, and has plans to be used to assist the elderly and those in hospitals. This is not some way to keep people indoors, or track their TV habits, or any of the other conspiracy baloney that will sure to be brought up soon.

      I wouldn't put too much credibility in these "applications" just yet - I suspect this is what's known in the business world as having a solution, and fishing for a problem. As the pr

    • I disagree. What it looks like is an examining bed with a few weight sensors interfaced to a computer (see the computer directly underneath "sofa") It can't do anything whatsoever, other than read off the weight and compare it to known users. There is absolutely no technology involved, and any highschool student could duplicate what they did in a month. (4 few sensors, hooked up to an A/D board, interfaced to a computer, program consiting of one if/else if stucture). Despite the total lack of innovati

    • Re:Read the article... (Score:5, Funny)

      by jolshefsky ( 560014 ) on Wednesday September 24, 2003 @07:14AM (#7042155) Homepage
      It's in development, and has plans to be used to assist the elderly and those in hospitals.
      Huh huh. You said "ass."

  • I don't get it. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by John_McKee ( 100458 ) * on Wednesday September 24, 2003 @12:51AM (#7040811) Homepage
    OK, am I the only person that doesn't get it? First a side note, it isn't even a sofa, it is more like a old medical exam table, but I digress. Sofa's traditionally are for more than one occupant, so how would it deal with more than one person on it? Furthermore, ignoring the fact that it would be near impossible to get an accurate identity based only on the weight on a sofa, how is it really useful? My sofa knows I'm on it, what does it do for me? It can't really adjust any preferences for devices around me in a manner that is useful, I use my sofa for tons of diffrent uses, having guests over, reading, watching tv, surfing on my laptop, and all of those are would fail to benfit from my sofa knowing that I personally am on it. It just seems like the solution to a problem that doesn't exist.
    • It just seems like the solution to a problem that doesn't exist.

      Perfect. They can sell it on late night infomercials.

      Ron: Are you tired of turning on your own TV?
      Bimbo: Oh, Ron I hate that!
      Ron: How many times has this happened to you? [Actor on screen drops remote under the sofa and fumbles around while showing copious amounts of crack]
      Bimbo: Constantly! That is quality time out of your life that you will never get back!
      Ron: Then you need the Lay-Z-Homer 3000*

      and so on...

      *Borrowed from above.

  • Amazing. (Score:2)

    by oGMo ( 379 )

    Just what the world needs. Now instead of getting that one bit of exercise required to find the remote, you can just shift your weight a little.

  • Now the wife isn't the only one to tell you to los (Score:5, Funny)

    by headbulb ( 534102 ) on Wednesday September 24, 2003 @12:51AM (#7040818)
    Now the wife isn't the only one to tell you to lose weight.

    Just imagine watching the superbowl, when you pick up a chip. Only to have your couch tell you "Put down the chip chubby."

  • ummm (Score:5, Funny)

    by bongobongo ( 608275 ) on Wednesday September 24, 2003 @12:53AM (#7040828)
    i can see potential problems already.

    say i'm sitting on the couch... some loose change falls out of my pocket.... i get up...

    now the couch thinks my leperchaun is sitting there and plays the irish channel all day long. that would be so annoying.

  • This is a huge improvement (Score:5, Funny)

    by teamhasnoi ( 554944 ) * <teamhasnoi AT yahoo DOT com> on Wednesday September 24, 2003 @12:56AM (#7040844) Journal
    from their prototype that required you to place a 12 ounce, specially modified bluetooth tranciever up your ass.
    • This is a huge improvement from their prototype that required you to place a 12 ounce, specially modified bluetooth tranciever up your ass.

      Ha, that's nothing. When I was at uni we tried something like this but we didn't have any fancy bluetooth technology. Try embedding an RS232 port up your ass and then plugging in without bending any pins.

  • "Hey Fatass..." (Score:5, Funny)

    by Fnkmaster ( 89084 ) on Wednesday September 24, 2003 @12:57AM (#7040845)
    Log off of Slashdot and go down to the gym, then maybe I'll let you sit down and watch some tube.


    Great, just what I need.

  • I've lost so much weight (Score:5, Funny)

    by dtfinch ( 661405 ) * on Wednesday September 24, 2003 @01:03AM (#7040884) Journal
    Even my furniture says it hardly recognizes me.

  • hello... (Score:2, Funny)

    by RedTyde ( 707025 )
    Having a sofa that says "Hello Bob" is all well and good. Right up until it starts saying "Hello Fat Cousin Rita" when you put on a few pounds over the holidays.
  • Something tells me this couch will connect to the internet and proceed to give me spam based on my weight.

    "Lose Weight Now!!! fkjl;ahfhlkadflsfkjd;alkjg"

  • Another excuse not to move.

  • weight catalog (Score:2, Interesting)

    by picardsb ( 693523 )
    yes - it will keep measuring how fast mr x keeps gaining weight. next it will also tell which doc to go to - maybe even call the doc (to write your death certificate). perfect recipie to make people more fat and stupid. wonder of mc daddy has something to do with it. 1st day; 150lb, day 10; 200lb - going good - day 30: your end is near, i'll order the your favourite quadruple cheese burger. makes me wonder who thought this up!

  • Fit for the real world? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Barnoid ( 263111 ) on Wednesday September 24, 2003 @01:22AM (#7040989)
    My experience is that every member of our family has his dedicated seat and always sits on the same couch even when he/her is alone.

    Those lucky of you who live with your wife/girlfriend and have 'your own' couch, does your partner really use it when you are not there?

    Maybe a simple 'ass present' sensor would be sufficient..

    --
    I'm a-huga bimbo
  • scientists at Trinity College in Dublin have created my dream couch.
    Because, you know, that's what scientists do. They make whacky gadgets. Used to be they studied things.

    Why, oh why, don't mod points work on articles?
  • I'd take a RFID in my back pocket any day.

    Back at the thoughtpolice headquaters:
    "32432789 likes monster drinks and swansons tv dinners!"
    "no kidding! he's pushing 215!"
    (pounds you metric barbarians)

  • Wow (Score:2)

    by CAIMLAS ( 41445 )
    Welcome to the pinacle of Western culture! This is what we have become. Amazing.

    I think it's time for the monguls and huns to run us over and pilliage our cities.

  • Heh (Score:5, Funny)

    by NanoGator ( 522640 ) on Wednesday September 24, 2003 @01:26AM (#7041012) Homepage Journal
    "Your honor, I did it because my husband hacked the sofa to say 'whoah, one at a time!' whenever I sat down on it."

    "Judgement in favor of the defendent: Justifiable homicide."
  • Sofa: "Get the hell off me, you fat bastard!"
  • How is this an intellegent couch when the computer right under it is clearly doing all the work? Why even make it a couch? Why not just attach the sensors to the computer? I mean judging who someone is by weight isnt very accurate most of the time.

    Either way, all of this is very easy to do...I will be amazed if they sell any one of these operating tables...i mean couches

    Seriously...this is nothing
  • Cowboy Neil?

    "You killed the sofa, you bastid!"
  • hopefully the couch calculates for all the weight i'll gain snacking while sitting in it
  • Or you could just look out for MAC addresses (or equivalents) of wireless devices carried by the occupants. I know I almost always have my mobile with me... now if only I had an I/O board to plug the computer behind my office door into a door strike.

  • Ding Dong! the doorbell rings.. (Score:3, Funny)

    by glassesmonkey ( 684291 ) * on Wednesday September 24, 2003 @02:03AM (#7041151) Homepage Journal
    ..in from stage left walks the average Joe Husband.

    Cut to frame of just door handle.. hand reaches in from left of frame and turns handle.

    Door opens showing a delivery boy holding a pizza and asking, "Who ordered the large extra-cheese sausage?"

    Cut to close up of husband's face looking puzzled.. then turns to look over shoulder with a stern look of annoyance.

    Cut to full-frame shot of the three-section sofa.

    "COUCH!!!" comes a voice from off screen (ala Hogan's Heroes).. Cue the canned laugher from 80s sitcoms.

  • lets use weight to recognize terrorists too (Score:3, Funny)

    by frovingslosh ( 582462 ) on Wednesday September 24, 2003 @02:08AM (#7041164)
    and the scientists hope that it will one day be able to automatically tune to your favorite television programs

    Gee, maybe in just thirty or fourty years these scientists will figure out some way to interface their fantastic wonderful invention into an ordinary TV remote control! Even without the clue of using a biometric like weight to try to distinguish people, did anyone else get the feeling these sientists might not be the cream of the crop?

  • ...but I'm trying to figure out just what this feature would be good for.

    It's cool that a room can know who I am (to set the preferred lighting level or whatnot), but why should a couch care? To show me what I want to watch on TV? That's a pretty complex algorithm that's taken me weeks to more-or-less teach to my TiVO...I don't want to have to teach it to my couch too. I despair of ever having furniture that can guess when I'll want to eat (let alone what), since even my GF hasn't proven too adept at that
  • only in america... oh, wait..
  • So far, the sofa can only deliver a personalized greeting to the person who plops down on it ... and from that they extrapolate any number of WOW things that it *may* be able to do in the future (if the hack who is programming it doesn't get borde or run out of grant money and give up!!!).

    Sometimes I despise articles like this!

  • There are better ways to identify users... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by WoTG ( 610710 ) on Wednesday September 24, 2003 @03:15AM (#7041403) Homepage Journal
    Umm... yeah, I think someone has spent too much time watching the Simpsons.

    Seriously, if we want music, lights, and the temperature to respond to who's in the room, aren't we better off with some voice recognition software? You and I have seen it on Star Trek - it looks like fun. =)

    Basic voice recognition would be feasible for this purpose. "Room, this is Joe. You know how I like it." Plus, there won't be nearly as many issues as this uncomfortable sofa will have. How is a sofa with a weight sensor supposed to know what to do when people are holding bags, or have just been to a buffet, or has a friend on the couch with them, or is jumping on the couch, or all of the above?

  • TiVo (Score:2)

    by slim ( 1652 )
    (Yes I am a TiVo bore)

    OK, the sofa is dumb, but there is at least one situation where a home appliance would benefit from a way to identify the individual who's controlling it, with as little interaction as possible.

    TiVo makes recommendations based on the shows you tell it you like and the shows you tell it you hate, but if there's more than one person feeding it preferences, it has imperfect data and gives poorer suggestions than it otherwise could. The idea of user profiles is so common that TiVo's own
  • Why post it in Science section? This sofa is just a silly (though admittedly neat) hack; it isn't particularily mind-shaking even from mere engineering perspective.
  • All the sofas must hope that Oprah never buys one. They would burn out trying to keep up with her weight changes.

    -Greetings, new sofa occupant. Who are you?
    -You stupid piece of furniture, it's me, Oprah! I 0wnz y00, remember?
    -I'm sorry, your weight does not match my database. You must be an imposter. Please get off me.
    -No way, I'm gonna watch my old re-runs. I'm staying put.
    -Help! HELP! I'm being used illegaly!
    -OK, OK, I'm leaving! What the... Steadmean, I've gotten into the sofa and I can't get up!

  • sure, i can see the humour - but this is possibly the saddest article i have ever read, and the saddest invention ever.

    firstly, i've NEVER grokked this whole lazy-e-boy-that-vibrates-and-has-a-frige-and-beer- holders. ok maybe i do grok it, but come on - get a little bit of style over there in the US please! secondly, is our culture so utterly mindless that we have resorted to inventions such as this??

  • Also converts automatically into casket (Score:3, Funny)

    by LazloToth ( 623604 ) on Wednesday September 24, 2003 @07:47AM (#7042282)


    Detects extended period of inactivity. Comes complete with 8 liters of embalming fluid.
  • Especially for couch potatoes if their weight matches the combined weight of their friends. Imagine sitting down to be greeted with 'Hello, Phil, Dave and Sandra.'

  • Application: Car seats (Score:4, Insightful)

    by crow ( 16139 ) on Wednesday September 24, 2003 @12:03PM (#7044733) Homepage Journal
    Where this would be useful is remembering settings for car seats (and mirrors). Cars already do this using different codes on keys, but this might be a better mechanism.

    Still, as other people mentioned, it sounds like a solution in search of a problem.

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