An offline desk gadget that kept me upright

Working from home has its risks. Pets may be troublesome, your back aches from hours at a desk, or you simply forget to move. There are a few apps that force you to move or show you that you’re not sitting in the right place, but they’re easy to dismiss.

I’ve spent the better part of a decade at a home desk, iterating the setup as I go – gaming chair, lumbar support, the works. No one guarantees good posture.

Then I came across Isa, a desk device from German startup Deep Care that takes a completely different approach. It tracks shape, water, light, sound and movement. And it does it all without a camera or an Internet connection, which, in an age of constant surveillance, is a significant difference.

Here’s how it works and what’s inside. Isa has a 5.5-inch IPS HD screen and looks like a table clock. Powered by USB-C; the company provides a power unit with it, but you can use any of your existing chargers as well, as it has an average power consumption of around 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 enables beta features, such as counting the number of times you’ve had water or other liquids. The company said the sensor works at a range of 0.15 meters to 1.8 meters. That means if the device is sitting on your desk, it can measure your movements, even when you stand up and walk around. It also packs several other sensors: a ToF 1D 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 straightforward — the device asks for a few details about you and your app. I found it strange that there was no option to set the device to Indian time (or any other Asian time zone). The company said that currently Isa only supports EU and US time zones. It’s fine for now – but wide time zone support, or a simple world clock, sounds like a basic expectation for a desktop device.

On the screen, Isa shows your posture with a squircle (rounded square) ring that fills or empties based on how well you’re sitting, while a water-style widget tracks your drinking. If you are not seated correctly, the indicator will turn yellow. The Apple Watch-style ring is a surprisingly effective switch – when I see yellow or red, I automatically go straight.

The device vibrates to alert you when you’ve been rowing too long, and I’m fine with that kind of little embarrassment. That warning also shows if you’re leaning too far forward or back and helps you adjust your posture.

The same widget tracks movement, and if you stand still for a while, Isa suggests you get up, with guided exercises on the device to follow. When you return to your desk after a break, the motion tracker restarts.

Deep Care chose not to include a camera, which helps with privacy, but comes with a trade-off.

If a bottle or other object sits between you and the sensor, it may read that as a person and record it as static. Pets or companions passing by can trigger the sensor, too. Isa usually detects when you’re out and about on the digital clock display, but I’d like a handwritten button to tell it I’m not at the desk so it stops tracking.

Because of the sensor method only, the device has told me to stand for a long time if I have been sitting for less than half an hour. These are minor distractions. When I’m balanced, the device made me check my posture more often than I used to, and the exercise suggestions are really helpful.

To process all these features, the device uses a quad-core 2 GHz 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 businesses. It recently expanded to consumers – a shift that shows confidence in the retail market for workplace health hardware, and a test of whether a subscription model based on premium hardware can find a mainstream audience.

The Isa is priced at 299 euros ($354) with two subscription levels. The basic plan (€4.99 per month) gives you access to posture tracking, healthy lifestyle tracking, drinking habits detection, and its own workout library. The Pro plan (€7.99 per month) allows you to track light, noise, and CO2 levels for a healthier workplace.

The company plans to use Isa’s sensor suite to tap into mental health-related tracking. It says that by using signals such as posture, head movement, and chest movement, the device can measure breathing patterns. Also, paired with environmental data such as noise, light levels, and CO2 levels, the company wants to present a stress-related score.

Even if you skip the mental health aspects, Isa is a solid tool for anyone who is serious about getting up and moving. 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 meaning to do something about their desk habits, it’s one of the most well-considered options out there.