An offline tool that kept me straight

Working from home has its challenges. Pets can be difficult, your back hurts from long hours at a desk, or you just forget to move. There is a few programs which encourages you to move around or shows that you are not in a good place, but it is easy to remove them.

I’ve spent the better part of ten years at my home desk, rehearsing the setup as I go – gaming chair, lumbar support, the job. Nothing guarantees a good posture.

Then I arrived Yesa desk device from German startup Deep Care that takes a different approach. It tracks posture, hydration, light, sound, and movement. And it does all this without a camera or the Internet, which, in an era of constant surveillance, is a differentiator.

Here’s how it works and what’s inside. Isa has a 5.5-inch IPS HD screen and looks like a table clock. It is powered by USB-C; the company provides power, but you can also use any of your existing chargers, because it has a power consumption of about 2.45W.

The device’s key sensor is a Time-of-Flight (ToF) 3D depth sensor on the front – the same technology used in facial recognition and other smartphone cameras – which tracks posture and movement. It also supports beta features, such as counting the amount of time you have consumed water or other beverages. The company says that the sensor works at a distance of 0.15 to 1.8 meters. This means that if the device is sitting on your desk, it can measure your movement, even if you are standing and walking. It also packs several other sensors: a ToF 1D sensor, a gyroscope, a barometer, a light sensor, a level sensor, a CO₂/VoC sensor, and a temperature and humidity sensor.

Getting started is easy – the device asks you a lot about you and what you do regularly. I found it surprising that there was no way to set the device to Indian time (or any other Asian time). The company said Isa currently only supports EU and US time slots. That’s enough for now – but long-term support, or a simple world clock, seems like the first hope on the table.

On the screen, Isa shows how you’re sitting with a (circular) squirrel ring that fills or drains everything depending on how you’re sitting, while a water color widget tracks your intake. If you are not living properly, the indicator will turn yellow. The Apple Watch ring is incredibly useful – when I see yellow or red, I naturally straighten up.

The device vibrates to alert you if you’ve been vibrating for too long, and I’m not okay with that kind of embarrassment. This warning also shows if you are leaning too far forward or too far back and helps you to adjust what you are doing.

A matching widget tracks your movement, and if you’ve stopped for a while, Isa suggests you wake up, and directs you to the devices you need to track. When you return to your desk after taking a break, the motion tracker restarts.

Deep Care chose not to include cameras, which help with privacy, but come with commercials.

If a bottle or other object gets between you and the sensor, it can read it as a person and classify you as stationary. Pets or housemates passing by can trigger the sensor, too. Isa usually calculates when you’re away and goes to the digital clock display, but I would have liked a hand button to say I’m not at the desk so it stops tracking.

Because of the sensor method itself, the device sometimes tells me that I have been standing for too long after sitting down for half an hour. This is a minor problem. In short, this device made me check my posture more often than before, and the exercise suggestions are very helpful.

To achieve this, the device uses a quad-core 2 GHz processor. The device can be connected to Wi-Fi to update apps, but you can turn it off at any time.

Deep Care was founded by three former Bosch employees and initially sold Isa directly to businesses. It has recently been extended to consumers – a change that shows confidence in the market for selling work equipment, and tests whether a subscription model that is set at a high price can find a large audience.

Isa is priced at €299 ($354) with two subscriptions. The basic plan (€ 4.99 per month) allows you to track your posture, track your health habits, identify your drinking habits, and its fitness library. The Pro plan (€7.99 per month) allows you to track light, noise, and CO2 levels for a better working environment.

The company plans to use the Isa sensor to start tracking health-related issues. It says that by using signals such as posture, head movement, and chest, the device can measure breathing. In addition, combined with environmental data such as noise, light levels, and CO2 levels, the company aims to show stress-related behavior.

Even if you skip the crazy features, Isa is a solid tool for anyone serious and traveling. It’s not cheap, and subscriptions add up to long-term costs. But if you or someone you know works from home and has been wanting to do something about what they do at their desk, this is one of the best options for you.