Comfort Motion Global Launches Automotive Healthy Seating Technology
Mercedes-Benz early adopter of industry-first technology that reduces driver fatigue and improves health and wellness.
DETROIT, Mich., Oct. 8, 2019 – Comfort Motion Global, (CMG) today announced the launch of its Healthy Seating Technology to the automotive market.
Based on years of biomechanical testing and medical research, this new seating technology reduces occupant fatigue and improves overall wellness and safety through automated, micro-adjustments of the driver and passenger seats. This first of its kind technology can be programmed into any memory seat and can additionally actuate any other system in the seat such as lumbar support, bolsters, heating and cooling, and existing massage functions.
The technology is a result of Dr. Paul Phipps, a noted Indianapolis-based chiropractor specializing in human performance biomechanics, treating his long-time patients for chronic back pain associated with the cumulative effects of sitting, especially when driving frequently or for long distances.
“Specializing in human performance biomechanics, I had worked extensively with professional athletes helping them to create structural balance, increased flexibility and greater stability,” said Phipps, chief medical officer and director of research and development, Comfort Motion Global.
“I realized these same principles could be applied to helping improve driver and passenger wellness for those spending repetitive or extended periods of time sitting in a car.”
“We then engaged with engineering and biomechanical labs at leading universities in order to validate our technology,” he continued. “Once our theories proved out scientifically, we formed our company, Comfort Motion Global, with the goal of increasing driver alertness and wellness, and eliminating the harmful effects of sitting, thereby supporting a healthier lifestyle for drivers and passengers.”
The Difference Between Healthy Seating Technology and Massage Seating
Healthy Seating Technology is a proactive technology, meaning it is designed to preempt tissue fatigue, and reduce related discomfort. The system, controllable by the user via the vehicle’s touchscreen, is a flexible software solution where the seat back and bottom cushion micro-adjust over time throughout the drive.
These adjustments collectively redistribute the occupant’s weight in the seat, continuously transferring compressive and shear stresses to new and different tissues. With each small motion (1° or less), it transfers the workload in the spine and supporting muscles to a new area so that no one area does all the work. This allows the natural tissue recovery cycles to occur, improving circulation and decreasing tissue fatigue and discomfort.
Traditional massage seating, conversely, is reactive, meaning it treats the pain that results from sitting in a static position. Massage technology also requires additional hardware such as mechanical rollers and pneumatic bladders while never addressing the source of the pain, which relates to remaining in a static position.
Original Equipment Manufacturer Adoption
Long known as a leader in delivering the latest in new automotive technology, Mercedes-Benz is the first automobile manufacturer to bring CMG’s driver wellness seating technology to the marketplace, under the branding, Energizing Seat Kinetics. Through extensive testing, Mercedes-Benz confirmed the technology’s benefits and consumer acceptance. Energizing Seat Kinetics has been initially introduced in their new memory-seat equipped GLE, GLS, A- and B-Class vehicles.
The CMG system is highly and uniquely customizable by each auto maker and enables them to refine the technology based on their own sense of marketplace and customer needs and wants.
About Comfort Motion Global
Comfort Motion Global, headquartered in Indianapolis, Ind., is a provider of proprietary Healthy Seating Technology that delivers a powerful, proactive solution that reduces back fatigue and improves health, wellness, alertness and counters the negative impacts of prolonged sitting. This driver wellness seating technology is scientifically and intuitively “good for you” and is adaptable to any industry where users have to remain seated for long periods of time. To learn more, visit Comfort Motion Global (www.comfortmotion.com).
