The question of acceptable DRM (Digital Rights Management) to combat piracy has been a hot-button issue with software consumers for years, with the most recent controversy arising from last week's SimCity release. But what if the concept of disabling a product after certain conditions are met wasn't just restricted to digital goods? That's the idea that a design team in Switzerland decided to explore with the "DRM Chair," a piece of furniture rigged to fall apart after being sat on eight times.
After an initial attempt involving charges made of gunpowder proved to be ineffective (and dangerous), the team settled on a design with each piece of the wooden chair held together using wax joints fitted with nichrome wire.
An Arduino-based mechanism attached to a contact switch keeps track of how many times someone sits on it and knocks on the wood each time they get up, indicating the number of uses left. After eight people have sat on it, the mechanism triggers a self-destruct system, which heats the wire until each joint melts and breaks away.
The DRM Chair was constructed by Les Sugus, a group consisting of former and current students of the ECAL design school in Switzerland. The team built the chair over a period of 48 hours as part of The Deconstruction, a competition aimed at fostering creativity and collaboration.
Check out the video below to watch the DRM Chair slowly collapse after reaching eight uses.
Source: Thibault Brevet via The Deconstruction
If they were trying to show how silly DRM really is, I can see why they made it to do what it does.
Thank goodness, though, that it's not a real product. While they got right the method of making it fall apart after the 8th sitting, and not on the 9th (because so doing would be dangerous to the 9th sitter), the slow-burn method of making the chair fall apart opens wide the door for a 9th sitter to try before the disintegration process has completed. They should have made the disintegration mechanical, not chemical, so that the chair would burst apart immediately upon the 8th sitter's rising up off the chair and getting a single step away. That would be the only safe method, were this chair a real product.
But, of course, again, it's not; and it was a demonstration to make a point in a controlled situation, and so was safe.
But I'm just sayin'.
@Max Kennedy, BigWarpGuy: Agree
Does the bathroom scale also count as DRM?
Talk about not building them like they used to.
No one wants to buy junk, so who would want to make it?
Companies that make junk, including those who practice engineered obsolesence don't care about our planet or our future, they just want to better their bottom line in an unethical way.
Paying for the digital product, is only fair IF the product actually does what it is suppose to for a fair price. Think back to simpler times when we all used devices such as pen to paper. That evolved to typewriters, and through to computers and the digital realm.
This is the crux of the matter; tangible things are easier to control.
Not just ownership, but money and power are what run the mill. Therefore manipulating all those 0’s & 1’s is BIG business, and that is fine, BUT easier to duplicate, and get for next to nothing. Maybe that’s why most people hate Microsoft. (well at least spell check capitalized the word for me).
I take a picture of Niagara falls, is the picture mine to keep, yes in either digital or traditional roll photo film. (Remember those days) Takin into account both the equipment costs, the consumables, do I need to pay for either method, yes, the roll & development of film obviously.
Classical 35mm Camera virtually $0 mine has been in the closet for 20 years. (Even 20 years ago maybe $200) $10 + $6 to print. If I get double copies, I can mail one to a friend for about a dollar. As for the digital version, oh it does not cost you anything, wrong. Smart phone $0-$800 Laptop or PC $500+ Digital camera $200 Printer $300 Inks $50 Photo paper $50 Then there is the software to capture, adjust, & optimize the quality. Then get the digital version displayed, or sent out, or if you prefer print it. Latest version of Windows™ $120 Adobe Photoshop™ $700 Provider Service Plan $600 So even if I only take two dozen pictures a year, Classical = $9 per photo (including the camera) for less than $1 I can mail the entire second set to half a dozen friends.
Accounting for the combined annual service contracts, & equipment; 24 Digital photos per year, between $34 -130+ per picture. Granted you can use most of the service and equipment for other things, but compare that to the classical camera that worked in sub zero weather.
Furthermore how to determine the acceptable level of performance of digital goods is yet another giant industry.
Is this why we want money for everything now, digital addiction….