Phil Nuytten just can’t stop looking for ways to improve things. Barely three months after unveiling his latest creation, the Exosuit, the Vancouverbased inventor is already working on ways to make it even better.

So how do you improve a dive suit that can operate at depths of more than 300 metres, comes with a self-contained life-support system and has four 1.6-horsepower thrusters, an HD camera and sonar? Simple — just add hands.

Nuytten is aiming to attach another of his creations, an articulated mechanical three-fingered “hand” called the Prehensor, to the Exosuit. The prostheticlike device mimics the human hand and would provide a greater level of dexterity than the suit’s current pliers-style grips or bulky gloves.

“We plan to install it on the Exosuit next year,” says Nuytten, adding that the device could also be used in other extreme environments. “It’s a system that could potentially be placed in spacesuit gloves. With those, it takes a lot of strength to close the fingers, and as soon as you relax, the whole thing pops open again, since the whole suit is pressurized like a big balloon.”