If you work long hours, or work in a northern country, you've probably spent some time trying to do something in the dark. Holding a flashlight occupies one hand, while headlights and all the rest may not light up your area properly, or even create unwanted shadows from your hands or the thing your working on itself.
What I propose is a wrist band that has one or more LED lights. They can be above or below, or even on the sides of your arm. They naturally point in the direction that your hand it working on, so there shouldn't be too much of a shadow, unless you're bending your wrist a lot, in which case you can put some more lights around the band.
LED lights are very efficient with energy, so you would mount watch batteries on the band to power them.-- lawpoop, Jan 15 2005 LED Museum review of the "Flashware" http://ledmuseum.home.att.net/flashw.htmA sort of wrist harness for ordinary flashlights [tiromancer, Jan 15 2005] Could be very cool looking. Make it out of thick leather, and arrange the LED lights like nailheads.-- robinism, Jan 15 2005 Many of the smaller headlamps would work around the wrist, though you may need to modifiy the straps. Black Diamond's Ion should work as is. Someone also makes a flashlight designed to be clipped to a baseball cap, which might work on a sleeve cuff.
I don't think this would be better than a head mounted lamp, under most circumstances. It would be good for telling ghost stories though.-- tiromancer, Jan 15 2005 At various times, while working on cars, I have encountered situations where this might be helpful. Line of sight is such that I can either shine the flashlight through to the work area, or I can look through the same passage to see the work area dimly, but not both at once. My hand takes a different route to the work area. In theory, this could be helpful. I just wonder if you could actually do anything without blocking your own light. Maybe with an entire bracelet of LED's as the author alludes to. Then of course there's the issue of not wearing jewelry while mechanic-ing because it poses a hazard.
I dunno, I give a thumbs-up even if I can't think of a use for it. Perhaps if the LED's were set out away from the wrist a ways to actually light the hands, it would be useful for orchestra conductors and sign language interpreters.-- half, Jan 15 2005 [half] -- what about a set of led lights that mount on top of your hand, just below your knuckles? Those should really shine directly on what you're working.-- lawpoop, Jan 15 2005 [robinism], Mens has done this and even figured out what colors to put on each nail/glove design etc. I had them hooked up to a 555 ocillator putting out square waves. There is ribbon cable going down the arms to a central battery and electronics.-- mensmaximus, Jan 15 2005 random, halfbakery