Brolly good notion out of the blue

[Hachiko]

I saw a mother having trouble carrying her baby while trying to hold up an umbrella in the rain," said Peterson. "And all of a sudden, the exact design popped into my head that would make a standard umbrella become hands-free with the addition of only one part -- and my Kataburera (shoulder umbrella) was born."

Peterson's Kataburera was, he says, "inspired by our backbone." It is basically a regular folding umbrella but with an 80-cm-long, 3-cm-wide handle made of bendy plastic with a nonslip cover that can be wrapped round the shoulder to make it hands-free, then unwrapped and straightened out again for normal use. Weighing in at just 220 grams, it's no problem even for the elderly or infirm to use.

Japan Times