Digital rights management (DRM) refers to controversial access control technologies normally used by authors, hardware manufacturers, copyright holders and other individuals to prevent the misuse or copying of their digital content and devices after sale. It’s time to check out a physical expression of DRM – the DRM chair. The DRM Chair lets you sit on it only eight times before it self-destructs. When you get up from the DRM Chair after sitting on it for the eight time, it collapses down without any notice.
The DRM Chair features a switch that connects to an Arduino board, which counts the number someone sits on the chair. Every time someone stands up from the chair, a solenoid taps the wood to inform of the number of sittings are left. After the eighth sitting, the chair passes electricity through the wire, which heats the wax and the chair falls down into pieces. Made by Thibault Brevet, Gianfranco Baechtold, Laurent Beirnaert, Pierre Bouvier, Raphaël Constantin, Lionel Dalmazzini, Edina Desboeufs, Arthur Desmet and Thomas Grogan, the DRM Chair has been designed as the Les Sugus team’s final entry for The Desconstruction hackathon.
From concept to final video shooting, the project took 48 hours to complete.