"Borrowed Back", and rush hour gets a hundred times easier

It struck me today, on a packed train: half the misery of a rush-hour commute is nothing more than the ache in the arm holding your book or your tablet.

So here is a proposal for a device that would make the commute rather easier:

The Borrowed Back support unit

The idea is to borrow the back of the person in front of you, and let them hold your book or your tablet. Exactly like the screen on the back of an aeroplane seat.

If everyone wore a Borrowed Back support unit on the train:

Worn, like so

somebody could hold your tablet for you:

A tablet goes here

or your book:

A book goes here. Push the book in and the light comes on by itself. Terribly chic.

And the world would come to look like this:

The world, once Borrowed Back catches on (drawn by mayu)

If you are persuaded, here is how to make one:

■ How to make it (about an hour and a half)

(1) Cut a body out of whatever you have to hand — cardboard, foam board. The chest strap is an elastic band screwed to the body.

(2) The circuit: solder together an LED, a tactile switch and a battery.

(3) Set the switch and the LED into the base, so that the light comes on when a book is pushed in.

Switch and LED in the base

Press it and it lights up

(4) Done.

Now put it on and go forth

That's all.