In very cold weather, even good gloves often fail and you end up clenching your fist inside them to keep your fingers warm. Mittens work better for warmth, but you lose dexterity.
What if a glove was designed around the fact that your hand wants to stay mostly closed in the cold?
The idea is a heavily insulated mitten where your real hand stays in a relaxed fist for warmth. Instead of your own fingers doing the work, there are mechanical fingers on the outside of the glove that you control using small movements, pressure, or muscle signals from your clenched hand.
Even in a fist, your hand is still very functional. You can vary finger pressure, tendon tension, thumb movement, and forearm muscle activation. Those small signals could be used to control external mechanical fingers through pressure sensors, cables, or EMG sensors.
The benefits:
* Fingers stay together and warm like a mitten
* No need to expose real fingers to cold
* Mechanical fingers handle interaction with the environment
* Control happens inside the warm zone
This would not need full human level dexterity. Even 2 to 3 mechanical fingers or a simple articulated claw could handle common tasks like opening doors, holding objects, using tools, or pressing buttons.
Similar tech exists in prosthetics and rehab gloves, but I have not seen it applied specifically to cold weather where warmth is the main constraint.
What do you think of this idea? Would you wear such gloves?