Chapter 15
Lin Lang glanced at Ji Zhixing's face and tentatively whispered, "I mean... if there were some kind of magical seat cushion that would make sitting on it feel like nothing..."
No sooner had he finished speaking than Ji Zhixing slammed his hand on the table and stood up. He had found a suitable competition item!
These days, they've been focusing on organizing the data. Although they occasionally discuss the project direction, they haven't come up with a suitable idea yet.
The CUPT competition is a science and technology innovation competition for college students jointly organized by the Ministry of Education, the China Association for Science and Technology, and the All-China Students' Federation. Unlike general science and technology competitions, CUPT entries are required to be based on or primarily on various physical knowledge and principles.
These days, many of the projects they can think of inevitably revolve around electronic production and automated control. After reviewing the documents and materials from the past few days, Ji Zhixing deeply felt that entries with little physical content would absolutely not achieve good results.
Lin Lang's words were like a thunderbolt to his head, instantly sparking an idea in his mind.
"How about we design 'zero-gravity' cushions or chairs?"
"Zero gravity?" Xu Dongyang and Lin Lang exchanged a glance.
Xu Dongyang spoke first: "Are you talking about the feeling of the 'zero gravity' bed at the Winter Olympics?"
“That’s right!” Ji Zhixing said.
During the previous Winter Olympics, the "zero-gravity" beds prepared for athletes' rooms in the Olympic Village were reportedly very well received and even trended on social media multiple times.
The so-called "zero-gravity" bed focuses on comfort, providing different levels of support for the head, shoulders, waist, hips, and legs by adjusting the height and tilt angle of the bed. In its optimal state, it can reduce the pressure on the parts of the body in contact with the bed by 30-80%, bringing the body to a pressure-free state and thus enabling better relaxation during sleep.
Of course, beds and seats bear force in completely different ways; they can only be said to have similar concepts. If they were to choose this as their research topic, the mechanical structure and pressure relief design would be much more difficult than that of a zero-gravity bed. After all, seats are smaller in volume, and sitting postures are more varied than sleeping postures. To make the seat provide just the right pressure relief support to the buttocks in real time according to changes in sitting posture would probably take a lot of effort.
However, the CUPT competition aims to "cultivate innovative awareness, inspire creative thinking, and improve the ability to apply physics." Unlike competitions such as the ROBOCUP Robotics Competition, it does not require physical works to be submitted. Instead, it focuses more on conceptual design and explanation of principles. Therefore, as long as the submitted projects are logically consistent with physical principles and can provide sufficient data analysis and support, they are acceptable.
Ji Zhixing thought about it more and more and felt that this project had great potential. He searched online and found that there was no such product at present, and there had been no competition projects in this direction in previous years.
"What do you guys think?" he asked, unable to hide his excitement.
Xu Dongyang had no objections, and Lin Lang had even fewer; they completely followed Ji Zhixing's instructions during the competition. Thus, the competition items were finalized, and the three began adjusting their plans, focusing their attention on project design.
However, designing a project from scratch is no easy task. In fact, most teams from various universities participating in the CUPT competition begin preparing a year in advance. For example, the Guangling University team, in which Fan Yongjie participated, was organized by the university as early as last year. It is said that the project is progressing quite smoothly. The framework was built last semester, and only some technical details remain to be resolved. In addition, data needs to be added to support the feasibility report.
They had only just finalized the project, and the technical solutions were still far from being finalized. After the initial excitement of finally securing the project wore off, all three of them felt somewhat lost and unsure where to begin. After discussing it, they unanimously decided to spend a week separately researching and casting a wide net to capture inspiration.
Ji Zhixing chose to go to the library, Lin Lang, who was quite talented in the field of computers, naturally chose to wander around the internet, while Xu Dongyang went deep into market research, hoping to use the existing seating categories on the market to refer to the details that their project needed to pay attention to.
At the library, Ji Zhixing was reading books at a rate of almost 20 a day. After immersing himself in the sea of books for several days, he finally roughly figured out a feasible direction.
On this day, the three of them summarized their findings and gathered in dormitory 310 for their first formal seminar.
Ji Zhixing first outlined the framework: "To design a 'zero-gravity' seating system, we essentially need to make the part of the body in contact with the seating system approach a zero-pressure state. This involves three aspects: the pressure source, the pressure transmission path, and the pressure receiver."
He circled those three words in his notebook and showed them to the other two, then continued:
"The pressure source mainly considers the physiological curves and activity characteristics of the human body, which we can study in terms of ergonomics. For the pressure transmission path, I can only think of built-in sensors at the moment, but that should not be difficult. The most difficult thing is how to make the pressure receiver, that is, the main body of the seat, dynamically and evenly release pressure according to the characteristics of the human body. This may involve miniature air compressors, suspension elastic elements, electromagnetic shut-off valves, height valve adjustment components, etc. I don't have a specific solution yet."
Xu Dongyang and Lin Lang's eyes lit up. Everything is difficult at the beginning. With the main framework in place, the research direction became much clearer.
Xu Dongyang spoke second, explaining that he had spent the last few days scouring the market for all types of seat cushions and chairs. Almost all the cushions focused on materials and shapes, such as honeycomb gel, hollow memory foam, and 3D air fibers, aiming to provide just the right amount of support. However, none of the products offered pressure relief at the contact surface.
Seats such as gaming chairs, space chairs, and magnetic levitation chairs are more technologically advanced, with many having built-in motor drive components to provide dynamic support for the user's lower back, hips, and legs. However, compared to the "zero gravity" effect they intend to design, they seem quite rudimentary.
Lin Lang, on the other hand, studied a lot of patent documents to avoid their project from infringing on other people's patents in subsequent designs, which could lead to disputes.
After summarizing their findings, the three decided to use the framework outlined by Ji Zhixing as a guide, each taking charge of a specific aspect and conducting in-depth research on feasible technologies. Lin Lang was responsible for the pressure source, Xu Dongyang for the pressure transmission path, and Ji Zhixing for the most difficult and complex part: the pressure receiver.
Although there are still many technical problems to be solved, the three of them breathed a slight sigh of relief with a clear research direction and division of tasks.
After a few relaxed, casual words, Lin Lang hesitantly began, "Well... I actually have another plan..."
Ji Zhixing and Xu Dongyang looked at him strangely. Wouldn't it be better to have multiple options for reference? Why make it sound so vague?
A note from the author:
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