The offline office tool that got me sitting up straight

Working from home has its own risks. It could be that your pets are demanding, your back hurts from long hours at a desk, or you simply forget to move. there A few apps That prompt you to move or indicate that you’re not sitting in an ideal position, but they’re easy to ignore.

I’ve spent the better part of a decade in a home office, repeating the setup process on the go — gaming chair, lumbar support, the works. None of which guarantees good posture.

Then I came across Issaa desktop device from German startup Deep Care that takes a completely different approach. Tracks position, humidity, light, sound and movement. And it does all of this without a camera or Internet connection, a meaningful distinction in the age of constant surveillance.

Here’s how it works and what’s inside. The Issa has a 5.5-inch IPS HD display and looks like a table clock. Powered by USB-C; The company supplies a power brick with it, but you can use any of your existing chargers as well, as its power consumption is around 2.45 watts.

The device’s main sensor is the Time-of-Flight (ToF) 3D depth sensor on the front – the same technology used in facial recognition and some smartphone cameras – which tracks position and movement. It also enables experimental features, such as counting how many times you have consumed water or other liquids. The company said that the sensor works in a range of 0.15 meters to 1.8 metres. This means that if the device is on your desk, it can measure your movement, even when you are standing and moving around. It also has several other sensors: a 1D ToF sensor, a gyroscope, a barometer, a light sensor, a sound level sensor, a CO₂/VoC sensor, and a temperature and humidity sensor.

Getting started is simple and straightforward, as the device asks for a few details about you and your work routine. I found it strange that there was no option to set the device to India time (or any other Asian time zone). The company said that Isa currently only supports EU and US time zones. Fair enough at the moment – ​​but wider time zone support, or even a simple world clock, seems like a basic expectation for a desktop device.

On the screen, the Isa displays your posture through a ring (a rounded square) that fills or empties based on how far you’re sitting, while a water tank-shaped gadget tracks your drinking. If you are not sitting in the correct position, the indicator will turn yellow. The Apple Watch-like ring is a surprisingly effective nudge: when I see yellow or red, I straighten up almost instinctively.

The device vibrates to alert you if you’ve been slouching for too long, and I’m okay with that kind of mild self-consciousness. This alert also indicates whether you are leaning too forward or backward and helps you correct your posture.

A similar device tracks movement, and if you’ve been stationary for a while, Issa suggests you get up, following the guided exercises on the device. When you return to your desk after a break, the motion tracker resets.

Deep Care chose not to include cameras, which helps maintain privacy, but comes with trade-offs.

If there is a bottle or other object between you and the sensor, it may read it as a person and register you as a stationary person. Passing by pets or housemates can trigger the sensor as well. Usually the Issa detects that you’ve moved away and goes to the digital clock display, but I would have liked a manual button to tell it I’m not at the desk so it would stop tracking.

Just because of the sensing method, the device sometimes told me I was sitting still for too long when I had been sitting for less than half an hour. These are minor inconveniences. Overall, the device made me check my posture more than usual, and the exercise suggestions were really helpful.

To handle all these features, the device uses a 2GHz quad-core processor. The device can connect to Wi-Fi for software updates, but you can turn it off at any time.

Deep Care was founded by three former Bosch employees, and initially sold Isa directly to companies. It recently expanded to include consumers — a shift that signals confidence in the retail market for workplace health devices, and tests whether a subscription model listed on premium devices can find a key audience.

The Isa is priced at €299 ($354) with two subscription levels. The Basic plan (€4.99 per month) gives you access to posture tracking, healthy sitting habits tracking, drinking habit detection, and its exercise library. The Professional plan (€7.99 per month) allows you to track light, noise and carbon dioxide levels for a healthy working environment.

The company plans to use Isa’s sensor suite to venture into mental health-related tracking. It claims that using signals such as posture, head movement and chest movement, the device can measure breathing patterns. Additionally, when combined with environmental data such as noise, light levels and carbon dioxide level, the company wants to provide a stress-related score.

Even if you skip the mental health features, the Isa is a solid device for anyone serious about posture and movement. It’s not cheap, and the subscription increases the cost in the long run. But if you or someone you know is working from home and you’re going to do something about their office habits, this is one of the more thoughtful options.