Articulated human arm support

摘要

An upper body appendage support apparatus having an articulating parallelogram support structure connected to an articulating upper body appendage support structure, the latter accommodating a user's forearm, wrist, and/or heel-of-hand. The apparatus analogously jointed to the human arm and moving synchronously therewith.

主权项

1. An upper body appendage support apparatus comprising:
at least one articulated support structure having; a plurality of segments pivotally connected in series by pan pivots; wherein at least one of the segments of the plurality of segments is a parallelogram segment having a resilient mechanism that provides a dynamic lifting force that biases the at least one of the segments of the plurality of arm segments upwardly in a lifting plane; an upper body appendage support structure pivotably attached to the articulating support structure; the upper body appendage support structure comprising; an upper body appendage rest, the rest having a first section configured to support a forearm and a second section configured to support an appendage portion below the forearm; the first and second sections of the upper body appendage rest, each comprising a curved surface of sufficient size and shape to support a user's forearm and an appendage portion below the forearm, respectively, without the user grasping either section of the rest with the user's hand, thereby leaving the hand free to grasp an object, wherein the surfaces are free from obstructions that would prohibit use of the hand to grasp an object; one or both of the first and second sections having; a roll mechanism connected to the upper body appendage rest for rotation about an axis substantially parallel to a user's arm to allow rotation of upper body appendages without lifting from, or sliding on upper body appendage support structure resting surface; and a roll mechanism functionally connected to the first section and a roll mechanism functionally connected to the second section, wherein the axes of rotation of the roll mechanisms are in line with one another.