Heated Arm Sleeve for Forearm, Palm, and Wrist Heating to Maintain Dexterity

To address the Army need for a lightweight, ruggedized, nonflammable, low-power device to maintain dexterity in resting individuals conducting cold weather operations, Physical Optics Corporation (POC) proposes to develop a new Heated Arm Sleeve (HAS). This proposed device is based on a layered system consisting of heating elements, insulation, and a temperature control subsystem integrated into a fingerless sleeve to directly warm the forearms, palms, and wrists. The low-power convenient HAS will maintain fine-motor dexterity in resting individuals by heating the muscles essential to dexterity. The HAS will perform for over 4 hours on a single 12 V battery, and can be integrated into military gear via a Snapnet connector, making it an easy-to-use, ruggedized device for resting military personnel as well as those performing tasks in the field. In Phase I POC will demonstrate the feasibility of the HAS by simulation and testing on tissue phantoms with thermal properties similar to those of human tissue such as polyacrylamide. In Phase II we plan to develop a wearable prototype HAS and demonstrate its effectiveness on human volunteers.