the ©Daily Avocado ~ Nourish your mind ~ Feed your soul

Chomping chips at the comp again? Crumbs are the least of your worries, the oily residue that coats the keys can cause you to, er, slip up while typing up your work.

Not any more! Japan's Takara Tomy has introduced "Potechi Hand", the ergonomic and bionic arm that grips greasy chips & brings them to your lips. Crunch chips to your heart's content and crunch numbers on your computer without fear - the only thing you might double is your dipping, and I'm sure Takara Tomy's crack researchers are onto that problem as we speak.
Anyway, back to the Potechi Hand. It might look like one of those cheap extendable gorilla-head grippers but dig deeper and you'll find that the boys from TT have done their homework.

The Potechi Hand is a crispy slice of engineering delight, as shown by the Three Commandments of Chip Gripping: NBCS, NTTS and FECS (respectively No Broken Clutch System, No Touch Table System and Finger Easy Cleaning System.

NBCS ensures that the pressure-sensitive clutch mechanism inside the Potechi Hand gently grips any chip without breaking it. NTTS refers to the design that keeps the 'fingers" from touching the table or desktop. last and not least, FECS rubs the fingertips together in a mild circular motion, thus shaking off any loose clingy crumbs. Check out this short video to see the Potechi Hand in action:

Takara Tomy displayed and demonstrated the Potechi Hand at the recent TOY Forum 2010 that just wrapped up January 19th - you missed your chance to get one of the cool promotional t-shirts like the one the cute booth companion was wearing.

You can still get the Potechi Hand, however... they come in your choice of green, orange or brown trim and cost a mere 699 yen (about $7.75) each. (via Gigazine and New Launches)

Steve Levenstein
J A P A N O R A M A
InventorSpot.com