The Fraunhofer IAO presented the project at Orgatec, the leading international trade fair for modern working environments, in Cologne at the end of October 2016. The motto of the trade fair this year was "Rethinking work". The prototypes were created as part of the 'Office21 innovation offensive', which has been working under the scientific direction of the Fraunhofer IAO for 20 years. At the heart of the idea: digitalizing work processes, making work organization more flexible and promoting innovation and creativity processes. The classic desk is being expanded into a digital workspace, with cables and papers disappearing to make room for a work scenario that ranges from the generation of creative ideas to their further processing at the workplace:

At the 'Wirefree Workstation', knowledge workers can use all devices at the workstation wirelessly - from the tablet to the screen and the task light. The completely wireless power and data supply is provided via various wireless technologies that are integrated into the tabletop.

The 'Extended Workdesk' uses OLED and multi-touch as a digital work surface. There will be no more mountains of paper here: In future, interaction with data and documents at the workplace will no longer take place exclusively via mouse and keyboard, but also via touch. Almost the entire desk is to become a digital work surface.

In the exhibit on show at Orgatec, the desk surface essentially consists of a 55" OLED display with multi-touch in UHD resolution, which enables access to all applications with free positioning, scaling and rotation of the windows via the Fraunhofer IAO's VD1 software.
Fraunhofer IAO will also be presenting a new solution at the trade fair for converting analog workshop results (e.g. in the form of sticky notes) into a digital form for seamless further processing. This can take place on interactive work surfaces using visual collaboration tools, for example. Here too, existing components have been combined to create a new functionality for the digital work process.

The realization of the described work scenario with the two new prototypes was a team effort. The Office21 project partners involved included :

• Drees & Sommer
• Fujitsu Technology Solutions
• Haworth
• Herbert Waldmann
• Intel Germany
• Interstuhl Office Furniture
• Kyocera Document Solutions Germany
• Nurus GmbH
• Schulte Electrical Engineering
• Soennecken
• Trilux