instead of utilizing a covering of the hands, this small container straps around the wrist. the band emits heat focused on the blood vessels traveling into the hand in order to warm the hands.

this has the benefit of not relying on standard hand warming practices. it enables the hands to be warmed while not adding girth to the fingers, or stiffening the joints. it also allows for the utilization of touchpads that require a conductive surface, and those little keys for pda keyboards.
-- tcarson, Jun 13 2006

Related Idea -self endorsement Warmed_20Brass_20Band
keep the fingers and lips warm [csea, Jun 14 2006]

If my fingers feel cold It might well be because the temperature of the air is ten or twenty below that of my hand. It does not mean that the blood in my hand is that much colder but that my nerves register the cold. So I don't really think the problem could be solved by heating up the blood.

Also I think it is dangerous to heat up the blood, think what it will do to organisms in the blood, brrr.

Plus, there will be residual heat in the blood that leaves your hand so the warm blood goes through the entire body and you end up with warm blood in your brain.
-- zeno, Jun 13 2006


[zeno] anything living in the blood would have plenty of heat just from the fact that the body temp is more than 98 degrees to begin with.

how would heating up the blood that is going to the brain be bad? we're not talking about extremes here and by the time the blood reaches the brain from the hands it is likely that any rise in temp will be lost.

this also functions in a similar (albeit opposite) purpose as the ears of a rabbit in the desert. in the rabbit, hot blood goes through the ears which have a large surface area, cools off, and is sent back through the body, cooling the entire animal down.

these units heat the blood going into the hands to compensate for the heat lost due to the hand's surface area coming in contact with the air.
-- tcarson, Jun 13 2006


it's just a basic electric coil heater, its position and size is how it affects the blood. the only way its heat is different than that of a hot water bottle is how where it cmes from.
-- tcarson, Jun 14 2006


"Also I think it is dangerous to heat up the blood..." — zeno
[takes clothes off]
I didn't realise they were so hazardous.

If my anatomy serves me correctly (and it may well not), the surface blood vessels that you see are returning blood from the extremities. The ones supplying blood are deeper.
-- st3f, Jun 14 2006


hence the heating of the entire wrist, both vessels entering and leaving the hand.
-- tcarson, Jun 14 2006



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