Sometimes, fatigue disables the hand before the exam is finished. Consider a "glove" consisting of a dense webbing of "artificial muscle" fibers and miniature sensors, connected to a thin central cable that snakes up your sleeve and into a power supply / computer unit that sits in your shirt pocket. The sensors detect initiation of finger motion; the computer activates the correct fibers. The glove should be transparent or colored to be indistinguishable from your skin. The main problem in the design of such a device is adjustment to allow for precision movements and for differences in individuals' hands.
-- dsm, Jan 23 2001

U.S. military efforts http://www.natick.a...98/feb/textiles.htm
This article briefly mentions development efforts with artificial muscle fibers for military garments. [beauxeault, Jan 23 2001]

Baking. The U.S. military is developing garments with artificial muscle fibers, to give soldiers "superhuman" strength and endurance. The linked article only mentions these developments in passing, but I've seen it described in much greater detail in conference presentations.
-- beauxeault, Jan 23 2001


A simpler and more feasible design would be something akin to the new swimsuits that we saw in the olympics. In addition to being more aeordynamic (not much of a problem during exams), the tightness and fit of the material supported the body in a way, so that the athletes' muscles didn't fatigue as quickly.
-- antoniebrentano, Jan 26 2001



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