It always bugs me that when I have a backache, I have to hold still if I want to have a heating pad/hot water bottle on my back. Usually, this also means sitting/lying in a weird position, which doesn't help either. So...the solution:
A vest (fleece or something) whose back/shoulders contain electrical heating pad surface between layers of cloth (heat pad can be removed to wash vest). The heat pad has also been adjusted to run off of, say, a 9-V battery which is in a pocket of the vest. Safeguards would be needed, naturally, to allow for turning off/on vest and preventing overheating, but I think it could work well. It would also be nice for those of us who seem permanently cold anyhow...-- Urania, Dec 23 2000 Heated Vest http://www.4atlast.com/usingprod.htmlFor use on motorcycle, snowmobile, boat, car, etc. Plugs into cigarette lighter. See also "comfort wrap". [wiml, Dec 23 2000, last modified Oct 21 2004] Jimmy Cai http://www.petatech-co.com/E-ps.htmHeat vest and other heat apparel [JimmyCai, Oct 05 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004] I know I seem goo-obsessed this week, but you'd want it to heat some kind of gel, so that it would fit your back contours properly.
I don't think it needs to be battery-powered; you'd get a lot more heat with a cord, and you can move around quite a bit on the end of a long extension cord. Although a battery version would be nice for outside. Hey... do they make something like this for Antarctic exploration, or is that only in Kim Stanley Robinson books?-- clynne, May 31 2001 I was imagining the Healing Tower as being nice and warm, too. (Downright womblike.)
I'm pretty sure that heated clothing does exist for (ant)arctic exploration and such.-- wiml, May 31 2001 random, halfbakery