Science: Health: Ergonomics
Adjustable Everything   (+1)  [vote for, against]
To hell with the expense, let's make everything height adjustable

As a person of greater than average height I have a lot of trouble with cash machines, door handles, desks, shopping trolleys etc. The relative low positioning of these items makes use difficult and is harmful to my posture.

But at the same time, I am aware that there are people who are shorter than me (mainly because the spokes of their umbrellas keep lacerating my throat) and that if all these items were positioned higher, then they'd have to wear stilts.

So, to prevent my walking like a wizened old geezer at the age of 26 and to prevent short people falling from their stilts and cracking their knees on the pavement, make every item of public "fixtures, fittings & furniture" height adjustable.
-- my face your, May 11 2003

Adjustable Drinking Fountain http://www.halfbake...Drinking_20Fountain
by dbsousa. Wherein snarfyguy promised me a dollar. [my face your, Oct 05 2004]

Throw this on the heap... http://www.halfbake...rgonomic_20Peephole
[k_sra, Oct 05 2004]

Vertical positionable hand-drier http://www.halfbake...onable_20hand-drier
by FloridaManatee. A different motivation but a similar consequence. [my face your, Oct 05 2004]

shoelaces
-- po, May 11 2003


ATM's - the floor should be adjustable so that you descend (to the depth of your liking) similar to the coming and goings of organists in the cinemas of yesteryear.
-- po, May 11 2003


I think that it would be cheaper to make the small number of abnormally tall people adjustable, rather than to make everything that they are likely to use adjustable.
-- hippo, May 11 2003


Kind of a "you too" idea, isn't it?
-- krelnik, May 11 2003


Kind of but not entirely.

I thought it was a bit of a pre-emptive strike - I've certainly never seen height-adjustable public "fixtures, furniture and fittings" - and figured that if I could cover all of them in one idea then we wouldn't be living in fear of a plague of "height adjustable X" ideas.

Actually, that's all lies. I just want my dollar.
-- my face your, May 11 2003


How small are you, krelknicks ?
-- The Kat, May 11 2003


well?
-- po, May 11 2003


Not as small as you.
-- krelnik, May 11 2003


come on back to back. I will measure you both.
-- po, May 11 2003


[mfy]: "It's in the mail."
-- snarfyguy, May 11 2003


Too much hassle. The last thing I want is getting stuck with the shopping cart thats stuck on "gigantor" mode/"inumanly tiny" mode. (you thought having a shopping cart with a gimp wheel was bad)
-- mbracke, May 11 2003


I'm a pretty short person. I will post another rant: make everything retractable as well!!! Or... I can hire [mfy] to carry me around on his shoulders when I go to concerts and pass me the stuff on the higher shelves of the fridge ... how bout that?
-- Pericles, May 11 2003


Ha! Serves you right, you bloody giant freaks.
-- waugsqueke, May 11 2003


The biggest opportunity is cars. Everything else might be difficult to adjust, but more than once I've found myself in a tiny car thanking my stars that this particular person installed a sunroof because I'm way out there. Now, I'm not suggesting sunroofs (I might be comfortable, but in an accident they'll find the top of my head nicely severed), but height adjustable seats ought to be a safety feature, not a pricey option. It's the torso height, not the legs, not the legs, that's the problem here.

I'm sure short people have car horror stories too.
-- AllenChristopher, May 12 2003


These problems would all go away if everyone would walk on all fours…like The Kat, for instance.
-- pluterday, May 12 2003


We had a very tall (7' 6") model at my life drawing class once - I felt like getting another sheet of paper.
-- hippo, May 12 2003


[po], it took me a full day to fathom //shoelaces//.

[snarfyguy], I believe you. Thousands wouldn't.

[Pericles], I'll perform those services, if you pay me into the concerts. Despite living in the city with probably the most stunted average height in Europe, there is always - *always* - someone taller than me at concerts. On the rare occasions that I cannot spot them immediately, I become nervous like a small boy without his security blanket.

[waugs], this idea isn't just for us //bloody giant freaks// it's for the shortarses, too. Equality, see?
-- my face your, May 12 2003


you are quick MFY, it took me two.
-- po, May 12 2003


You lot are so jealous of the way I am double-jointed and flexible and Cool and Gorgeous. Am buggaring off before 8/7 gets back.
-- The Kat, May 12 2003



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