Give a general purpose characterisation of what constitutes a handle, in the ordinary sense of door-handle or drawer-handle, which is sufficient to enable one to infer from a qualitative description of the shape of a part of an object whether or not it can be a handle for that object. In particular, it should be possible to infer that a blunt conical projection cannot be a handle, but an inverted conical projection can be; that a simple rectangular projection can be a drawer handle, but not a suitable handle for lifting a heavy object; that a piece of rope attached at one end can be a door handle; and that a hooked or u-shaped projection, or a rope fastened at both ends, can be a handle for almost anything.
Contributed by Pat Hayes ( phayes@ai.uwf.edu), Institute for the Interdisciplinary Study of Human and Machine Cognition, University of West Florida, U.S.A. (2nd October 1997)