Need a hand?
A base is worn around the back and chest, with places to attach the extra arms. The extra arms are flexible tubes like adjustable desk lamps have. At the end is another socket for attaching a "hand" made of three or more similarly flexible "fingers" with a spongy nonslip surface. With two of these you can hold a book in place without your (puny human) arms getting tired. With one you can hold a phone beside your head.
If you like to walk while thinking, you can jot down your thought in a notebook.
When you're not using them, the arms can be folded against the base, or removed.
Additional bases are worn around upper arms, forearms, thighs and calves, so you can have nine sets of arms moving in different ways.
Arm parts are available in a variety of stiffnesses and lengths.
Specialist hand attachments are available as alternatives to the finger-based ones. They include cups (straws sold separately), torches, clocks, fuzzy dice, bags and battery powered fans. The bags are available in large enough sizes to hold the unused parts of the system.-- caspian, Jan 15 2005 Modular Extra Arms [FarmerJohn, Jan 16 2005] (?) here ya go http://www.geocitie...nie/handsthree.html [FarmerJohn, Jan 15 2005] My arms aren't strong enough to support the weight of extra bases, and I think thigh bases would interfere with walking. A base at the hip-hugger level would be good.
"Mr. Jones, did you pinch me just now?" "That wasn't me, that was my M.E.A"
"We dusted for prints Sargent, but all we could find were these arm parts in a variety of stiffnesses and lengths."-- robinism, Jan 15 2005 [FarmerJohn] Nice idea, I didn't find it while looking for similar stuff. Clever method of attachment. I remain hopeful that my idea's not too redundant.
Would you do me an illustration (of mine)?
[robinism] I hadn't really figured out what the bases would be like. What were you thinking of, that would be too heavy for your arms?
I was partly thinking of wide bands of fabric, and partly thinking of rigid slabs of plastic or metal, so I guess I meant a combination of both.
I don't think thigh ones would get in the way of walking, but the weight of the arms off to the side or front might make it hard.
I don't know how I missed the octupus image when I first posted this, but there should be two tentacle-type arm units. A decorative rubbery one that jiggles when you move, and one like an ordinary arm unit, but with a non-slip surface and no hand-socket. The tip of the latter can be wrapped around something to carry it.
I'm not sure if I made it clear earlier, but to bend the arms you use your real hands, like you would with a desk lamp.
Another idea for when this would be useful, is if you wanted to sketch a picture of yourself at midnight in the rain with a learn to draw book. Extra arms could hold a mirror, an umbrella, a pencil sharpener, a torch each for your face, the sketch, and the instruction book, a high-caffeine soft drink, a clock coming from your forearm so you can move it into the light... ummm, I'll stop now.-- caspian, Jan 16 2005 [FarmerJohn] Thanks for the picture, that's the device I was thinking of. I guess it doesn't look that much like an octopus after all. More like a tree.-- caspian, Jan 17 2005 //a high-caffeine soft drink
Oh good. Now I can keep drinking coffee even after my hands start shaking. +-- Etymon, Jan 17 2005 These would be very useful, particularly if there was range of adapted clothing to fit them.-- 8th of 7, Feb 22 2017 random, halfbakery