14 DAY TRIAL // Usually, when someone yells “punch it!,” they mean that you should accelerate your car or otherwise start doing whatever you're doing faster. Still, people use the words with their literal meaning pretty often as well, just not when something fragile and reasonably important is involved. Usually.
Keyboards normally qualify as practical, important, expensive (especially if it's a gaming model you own) and generally fall under the “hitting them is bad, really!” category. No matter what Ace Ventura would tell you.
This doesn't stop certain humans, from avid gamers to very stressed financial officers, from smashing their fists against the poor things every once in a while.
There's a reason such a thing as “rugged” exists and why the more expensive peripherals out there have thick, solid frames and keys. And mechanical switches. And spill-resistant design (because even if you smash your fist against the desk, it could make your coffee cup spill over your poor device).
A firm based in Berlin, Germany, decided that it was high time someone did something nice for all these people likely to devolve into a murderous rage.
Behold, the Workoutcomputer!
In a nutshell, this is a computer that will make you use your energy so thoroughly and exhaustively that you'll never actually have enough to spare for a nerd rage even if you feel it descending on your mind.
The company is called Bless (a really ironic name in all honesty) and designed the Workoutcomputer for the second Istanbul Design Biennial event.
The official purpose was to turn the PC into a full body experience. The solution? Turn every keyboard key into a punching bag or contraption otherwise meant to be hit. Literally. Sensors linked to a laptop are included in every key pad you see in the attached photo gallery.
So yes, you'll not only be allowed to punch your keyboard until you cannot punch anymore, but you'll even be receiving passive encouragement.
If you're particularly inventive, you ought to have what it takes to turn the Workoutcomputer into a way to enhance your flexibility and rapid response. Just make it a point to punch or kick your chat replies or documents as quickly as possible and voila! Athleticism at its most bizarre.
No longer split your time between leisure and work
This is the other “official” purpose of Bless' invention, to allow you to both work out and take time off at the same time. To make a “new live/work balance manifesto.”
All in all, Workoutcomputer is a hilarious invention, if not one that is all that likely to sell to the world at large.
