Patent ID: 8083673

Claim:
An examination apparatus, comprising: (a) manually movable structure having a first selective movement from a free state to a compressed state and a second selective movement, being a return movement from said compressed state to said free state; (b) a plurality of fingers disposed adjacent to said structure, said fingers having a stowed state and an open state, said stowed state having a nested relationship between said fingers to reduce a silhouette of a leading edge profile of said plurality of fingers in said stowed state, said open state requiring a sequential movement of a first finger prior to a movement of a second finger to proceed from said nested relationship to said open state; (c) a means for urging said second finger into said stowed state; and (d) a mechanism for moving said plurality of fingers utilizing said structure, wherein said fingers are moved from said stowed state to said open state, wherein said mechanism includes a plurality of flexible elements that communicate movement from said manually movable structure to said plurality of fingers while accommodating said sequential movement in proceeding from said stowed state to said open state and reversing said sequential movement in proceeding from said open state to said stowed state, said flexible elements each being constructed of a cable that is adjacent to a pivotal moment arm of each of said plurality of fingers, with said cable also being adjacent to a movable portion of said structure on an opposing end of said cable, wherein said mechanism is sized and configured to be operational for at least one of said fingers to have an increasing mechanical advantage facilitated by an effective change in a moment arm dynamic length of said pivotal moment arm in proceeding from said stowed state to said open state, wherein said increasing mechanical advantage is between said manually movable structure and said plurality of fingers that is operational to increase an opening force of at least one of said plurality of fingers from said stowed state to said open state for a fixed manual force on said structure in proceeding from said stowed state to said open state.