The desks of tomorrow

“New visions of work” is this year’s motto for ORGATEC, the leading trade fair in modern workplace concepts. Together with partners from the Office21^® innovation campaign and other companies, Fraunhofer will be premiering two entirely new workplace prototypes.

What will the workplace of tomorrow look like? Under the scientific leadership of Fraunhofer IAO, the Office21^® innovation campaign has dedicated itself to that very question for 20 years now. Together with research partners, Fraunhofer IAO will be publicly premiering two new workplace prototypes at ORGATEC 2016.

Both prototypes arise from a desire to digitalize work processes, make work more flexible, and promote innovation and creativity. The traditional desk has been transformed into a digital workspace that does away with cables and papers and provides a space to come up with and develop creative ideas.

A brief overview of the two workplace prototypes:

Wire-free workstation – power and data without the cables

No more rat’s nest of cables: at the wire-free workstation, knowledge workers can use all of their devices – tablets, monitors and even desk lamps – without the need for cables. Thanks to various wireless technologies, access to power and data is integrated into the tabletop and completely wire-free.

Extended workdesk – OLED and multi-touch digital desk

Say goodbye to mountains of paper: in the future workplace, more and more actions will be completed with touch rather than keyboard and mouse, just as we have become accustomed to with our tablets, smartphones and other devices. In the extended workdesk, this means that almost the entire desk becomes a digital work surface. The prototype on display at the trade fair is based on a 55” OLED display at UHD resolution with multi-touch capacity; it uses Fraunhofer IAO’s VD1 software to access all applications with flexible window positioning, scaling and orientation.

Another highlight at the Fraunhofer IAO booth is a new solution for converting content from workshops (sticky notes, for instance) into a digital form that allows for seamless processing. This can be done using interactive workspaces or visual collaboration tools, for example. Here, too, existing components have been arranged to provide new functionality to the digital work process.

The work scenarios described here with reference to the two new prototypes were a team effort. The following Office21^® partners participated in the project (in alphabetical order):

– Drees & Sommer AG
– Fujitsu Technology Solutions GmbH
– Haworth GmbH
– Herbert Waldmann GmbH & Co. KG
– Intel Deutschland GmbH
– Interstuhl Büromöbel GmbH & Co. KG
– Kyocera Document Solutions Deutschland GmbH
– Nurus GmbH
– Schulte Elektrotechnik GmbH & Co. KG
– Soennecken eG
– TRILUX GmbH & Co. KG

In addition, the following companies have provided further support:

– 3M Deutschland GmbH
– DEON GmbH & Co. KG
– Interface Deutschland GmbH
– Legamaster GmbH
– Microsoft Deutschland GmbH
– Oktalite Lichttechnik GmbH
– Veyhl GmbH
– witech GmbH

Contact:
Udo-Ernst Haner
Fraunhofer IAO
Nobelstraße 12
70569 Stuttgart, Germany
Phone +49 711 970-5470
udo-ernst.haner@iao.fraunhofer.de

Dr. Matthias Bues
Fraunhofer IAO
Nobelstraße 12
70569 Stuttgart, Germany
Phone +49 711 970-2232
matthias.bues@iao.fraunhofer.de

http://www.office21.de/