Biking while working: Acer unveils ‘bike desk’ for multitaskers who want to pedal and catch up on work tasks at CES tech fair
- Taiwanese electronics giant Acer debuts a bike desk at CES tech fair that lets its rider type and work out at the same time
- The bike desk uses the kinetic power from pedalling to generate an electrical charge that powers devices
Taiwanese electronics giant Acer this week unveiled a “bike desk” for people who want to work while on their exercise machine, in a product offering for multitaskers in a post-pandemic world.
Acer released the bike desk, dubbed the eKinekt BD 3, in Las Vegas at this year’s annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES), touting it as a desk combined with a stationary bike for “sustainable and healthier lifestyles”.
CES is one of the largest technology exhibitions for consumer and personal electronics in the world, attracting a swarm of major global electronics giants, such as Sony Corp, Samsung Electronics and Lenovo Group, who debut their latest gadgets.
While the desk does not look significantly different from the typical in-door exercise bike with a work desk mounted on top, the concept is novel and is clearly aimed at the new breed of post pandemic workers who want to catch up on office tasks while getting fit.
One of the key innovations is that the desk turns kinetic energy from cycling into an electrical charge to power electronics gadgets, such as laptops or smartphones, according to the Taiwanese company.
Acer says that one hour of non-stop pedalling at 60 revolutions per minute on the machine can generate 75 watts of power.
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A Weibo user with the handle DaxiedeRTER wrote on the social media platform that “working, pedalling, while charging your laptop simultaneously will surely win your company a Green Energy medal”.
Daily Dose of Tech, a local tech blog, quipped that the bike desk is a “must-have for all corporate slaves”.
The bike desk, equipped with one USB typc-C and two USB type-A ports for extensibility, has two different modes.
The work mode brings the desk closer to the seat, allowing riders to sit more comfortably for working and cycling. Switching to the sport model allows the device to function more like a standard exercise bike, according to the company.
Acer did not give an exact launch date or say which regions it will be available to.
The new product comes as the world emerges from three years of Covid restrictions, during which hybrid models of working from both home and the office have been adopted by many companies around the world.
However, with even China now reopening, more companies have been asking their employees to come back to the office, which may affect sales of the newly-released bike desk.
