Many people suffer from impaired use of their hands. Impaired use of one's hand may be a result of an injury, disease or even old age. Impaired use of one's hands makes it difficult for a person to conduct routine daily tasks such as unlocking doors, filing a fingernail, opening mail, aspirin bottles and medicine containers.
When a person locks or unlocks a locking mechanism with a key, usually, a thumb and a forefinger of the person's hand is used to grasp the bow of the key and the user rotates his/her wrist to turn the key in the key way of the locking mechanism. The distance from the rotational centerline of the key extending perpendicularly therefrom to the end of the bow is the moment arm. A sufficient force is therefore necessary to be applied along the moment arm to effectuate turning the key disposed in the key way of the locking mechanism. The smallest force to be applied to the key would be at the very ends of the bow of the key along the moment arm. For some people with impaired use of the their hands, even the minimum force required to turn the key may be too great to turn the key without a tool which, in effect, lengthens the moment arm. Any tool which can double the moment arm would, of course, decrease the amount of force required to turn the key disposed in the key way by one half (1/2).
Some people with impaired use of their hands find it difficult to remove caps from modern medicine containers. Laws have been promulgated which require the caps of modern medicine containers to be "child proof". Child proofing a medicine container has made it more difficult to open. Although the degree of difficulty is rather insignificant for one having normal use of his hands, opening a medicine bottle by a person having impaired ability of his hands can be insurmountable. Typically, the cap must be compressed onto the top of the medicine container and then unscrewed therefrom. Again, the moment arm which extends from the center of rotation of the cap around the medicine container to the radial end of the cap can be rather small for a person suffering from impaired use of his hands.
Laws have also been promulgated to "child-proof" aspirin bottles. Typically, an arrow on the lid of the aspirin bottle must be aligned with the arrow on the aspirin bottle itself. A serrated diamond-shaped tab extends from the rim of the lid and is appropriately aligned for opening when the arrows are aligned. Applying a force to the tab substantially parallel with the radial center of the cap will cause the cap to pop open from the aspirin container. Again, although opening an aspirin container is now more difficult, it is usually no problem for one with ordinary use of his/her hands. However, it becomes extremely more difficult to open an aspirin container for one of impaired use of his/her hands.
It can be a challenge for a person with impaired use of his/her hands to open a sealed envelope. To overcome this problem, those having this handicap often use a letter opener, a knife or some other elongated object which facilitates this task.
Opening beverage cans poses yet another problem for a person having impaired use of his/her hands. The beverage cans, particularly aluminum cans, include a snap top lid that requires strong and nimble fingers to raise a key in order to depress a cap into the beverage can, thereby opening the same. Often, a physically handicapped person would obtain a lever device such a butter knife or a screw driver and employ the same to gain mechanical advantage to open such a beverage can.
Those with severe limited use of their hands also find it difficult to use a simple nail file or an emery board for maintaining their fingernails. Nail files and emery boards are typically flattened elongated structures which require a thumb and a forefinger to hold the same while in use. Those with severe limited use of their hands find it virtually impossible to manicure their nails using such a device.
Devices have been manufactured and marketed to people having physically impaired hands to make daily tasks easier to perform. For example, one such device is an apparatus having a pair of plateau structures which form a V-shaped channel. The apparatus is securely fastened to a support structure. A pair of serrated walls face into the V-shaped channel and operate to grip a lid on a jar or similar container. Once the lid is gripped by the serrated walls, the user can then apply torque to the jar using both hands in order to remove the lid from the jar. Other devices such as letter openers and bottle openers have been used to more easily perform daily tasks. However, few devices have been made which combine a variety of features onto a single, comport apparatus.
There is a need to provide physically handicapped people with a utensil that can assist them in turning keys in key ways of locking mechanisms. There is also a need to provide physically handicapped people with a utensil which can assist them with opening modern medicine containers as well as aspirin bottles. There is also a need to provide a utensil for physically handicapped people to assist them in opening sealed envelopes. There is a further need to provide physically handicapped people with a device which could assist them in opening beverage cans. Another need is to provide physically handicapped people with a utensil that would be easy to grip for the purpose of manicuring their nails. It would be advantageous if all of the utilitarian features needed by physically handicapped people could be combined in a single utensil. It would also be advantageous if such a utensil could be easily gripped and manipulated by hand of one having impaired use of his/her hands. The present invention satisfies these needs and offers these advantages.