The Laptop Desk from LapWorks could help protect the little swimmers of want-to-be fathers when they are without a desk and must use their laptop on their lap.
The folding portable desk creates a protective workspace across the lap and addresses research into optimal temperature. Researchers said that the combination of the heat generated by the laptop and pressing the thighs together to balance one increases temperatures around men's privates and over time can result in problems.
The Laptop Desk cools laptops with heat-conducting polycarbonate plastic and recessed ventilation channels. A thermal study conducted by the California Polytechnic University at Pomona proved the Laptop Desk reduces the heat passed through to the lap by eight to ten percent.
Its 21-inch lap span also allows men to sit in a more natural posture with legs spread apart.
Ergonomist Sally Longyear stresses correct laptop-using posture to avoid other computer-related injuries: "Users should choose a work platform that spans their entire lap so they can relax their knees instead of squeezing them together to balance a laptop. This minimizes strain on the shoulders, neck, back, and arms."
"I designed the Laptop Desk to address the hazards of using a laptop -- to the user and the computer itself," said Jose Calero of LapWorks.
"Constant overheating is the laptop's worst enemy, shortening its life and causing sluggish performance. Users may experience hot leg plus neck, back and shoulder strain from the poor ergonomic typing angles."
On a desk, the Laptop Desk folds into a five-position wedge, inclining the keyboard for more ergonomic typing to save men's wrists as well as their little swimmers. LapWorks' thermal study concluded that inclining a laptop cools it by fifteen to twenty percent because more hot air escapes.
The Laptop Desk costs $29.95. The 22-ounce version 2.0 is for larger laptops and the 14.6-ounce UltraLite is for notebooks of 5 pounds or less. Both fold in half for easy traveling in any computer bag.
LapWorks develops ergonomic portable computer accessories that ease mobile computing.