Sometimes my job entails standing around for great lengths of time watching people do stuff. Pretty bloody boring. But worse, all the standing around gives you a sore back, legs, and feet.
I'd love to sit down (and I'm pretty sure this wouldn't effect my eyes - and therefore my job performance ), but for one, I might fall asleep, and two, people always assume you are being lasy if you are sitting around doing nothing (myes, as opposed to standing around doing nothing...).
Anyway, today I came up with a solution.
It started with the usual dreams of a bed, then maybe just a sofa, then I'd settle for a chair, at which point I decide I'd just really love one of those fold out stools thats basically a broom handle with a flat pad at one end for your arse...
Reality hits, and I'm still standing there wishing I wasn't.
But then I came up with this idea:
What if you could have some sort of linkage under your pants - sorta like a more ergodynamic version of those forrest gump leg things (no offence to those who need them, I just dont know what they're called).
Follow me on this one: you start with the shoes (or inserts in your shoes) with a structural pivot, like gump, then (and you could use carbon fibre shaped to your limbs for style and sleek fit) the shin supports, thigh supports, finally ending up at a waist/crotch fixture, not disimilar to a parachute harness. Each section is strapped to your body, but not always connected together.
As you walk around, the sections are not connected, so you can walk around as normal (and the sections are limb shaped remember, so you cant see them under your clothes). If you want to rest your feet, you reach into your pants pocket, where there is a lever or maybe a pull cable. You pull it, and all the sections link together into a stiff exoskeleton, starting with the supports in your shoes, ending in the harness.
As the sections join into one, it becomes slightly longer than your waist height, and therefore becomes a loadbearing structure. It *slightly* lifts your heels off the ground, while leaving your toes *just* touching to allow you to tweak your balance, AS YOU ARE NOW SITTING WHILE STANDiNG (or was that standing while sitting ?!)...
Any takers ?!-- JoeyJoJoShabadoo, Oct 13 2005 Hightoes http://www.geocitie...hnnie/hightoes.htmlAn offmind display of FJ creation. [reensure, Oct 13 2005] Sounds bloody uncomfortable with all that going on in your pants.
// *slightly* lifts your heels off the ground, while leaving your toes *just* touching to allow you to tweak your balance// [+] for the visual.-- skinflaps, Oct 13 2005 I had a crappier version of an idea like this a little while ago, although it was just a pair of shoes that had retractable platic heels that were so long they would rest beneath your COG in the sitting position, and had some sort of thing that would support your body weight.
I liked the idea and am pretty sure you can call those "forest gump leg thing" leg braces.-- jellydoughnut, Oct 13 2005 Don't competitive shooters wear pants that are so stiff that they are effectively sitting while standing in said pants?
If not, I have been GROSSLY misinformed.-- Texticle, Oct 13 2005 They make a cane (I saw once in a medical supply store) that converts to a small two legged seat like device. It was quite clever and highly adjustable that worked in such a way you could actually lean back on it and it would support you from the buttocks down. I have been in situations I thought, "Now, I could use that cane..why didn't I buy one then?"-- Blisterbob, Oct 14 2005 random, halfbakery