Denso seat is a muti-functional car seat which improves passenger comfort level while sitting in the vehicle.
It replaces the rigid frame with intricate structure, detects users’ body temperature and generates proper airflow from the biotic pipes inside the seat cushions. It is much more ergonomic and decreases the need for air condition, thereby increasing energy efficiency.
I work as an industrial designer in this project. I design the appearance, CMF of the product. Build prototype and present to the sponsor company (Denso)
Mechanical system design (3D modeling), prototyping, machining, fabrication.
Rhinoceros, 3D printing, milling, hardware syste layout, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator.
Michael Lin
How to increase passenger's comfort level while sitting in a vehicle?
With the coming era of autonomous vehicles and people having no longer the need to drive by themselves, they will focus more on the comfort and experience inside the vehicles, which includes car seats.
While sitting in a car, people have different needs and preference on the temperature. Sometimes the air conditioner could not meet everyone’s demand. For example the passenger at the back might feel hotter than those at front under the same temperature condition. Therefore, the temperature has to remain low in order to cool down the certain area, even though others might not need such low temperature.
Ergonomic air layer
Air layer is the pipe layer attached behind the rigid structure, allowing the air to go through with. The position of the outlets were based on human heat map (red points), easily cool/heat the certain part for passengers while sitting inside a car.
The blue points are the centroid of the red points, and the green points are the centroid of the blues’. This would make sure that the route from inlet (green points) to outlet (red points) are the shortest and the best route. Also, it makes sure that the airflow of every outlets would have the same amount.
In order to create airflow for indivisuals instead of all passengers sharing the AC, the interior of denso seat was comprised of mutiple pipes, allowing air to go through the seat.
It applies the rules of leaf veins. Leaf vein plays a major role in the cycle of leaves’ life. The leaves absorb nutritions by phtosynthesis and deliver it to the trees.
Learn from nature, current car seat design study, generate heat and cool air from sensor research.
2D CAD file studying, 3D modeling, meterial study.
Program Arduio to generate both heat and cool air, fabrication: Laser cut, water jet, CNC, Python programming.
Integrate prototype with hardware sensors and run simulation to check if it generates appropriate airflow.
This project was the featured project at MIT Media Lab 2017 Member's event. My professor Kent Larson was introducing my project to all the member companies at MIT Media Lab. This project has officially been adapt to a bike seat and commercialized by Denso Corporation in 2019.
