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Mouse Not Required?
Chromose asks: "Being a system administrator by day, and coder/artist/gamer by night, my hands and wrists get their fair share of exercise around the clock. I've had lumps on the back of my hands off and on for a couple years now and just recently discovered they are ganglion cysts. And although pain and stress has been minimum up to now, I worry of what continuing everyday keyboard and mouse stress will lead to. Introducing FingerWorks. I stumbled across their iGesture Pad on ThinkGeek the other day and started digging for reviews. What reviews I have found exclaim how remarkable the products work, but not many reviews could be found. It sounds like the answer to my search for relief, and it sounds too good to be true. So I'm asking, who out there has used these things and are they truly a revolution in the making?" Yes, ThinkGeek is part of the Sinister VA Software Kieretsu, but if you aren't worried about it, then neither am I.
Ummm, you're not moving ANYTHING else. I think that's kinda the point.
0 force allows you to change/reduce the amount of force used to type on the keyboard this == reduced stress (in theory). The changes in the angle of the hands alone from most other keyboards should yield some short term improvement. (and with altering the types of keyboards he uses could yield long term improvement)
You can also get a trackball, I use the MS Trackball Explorer and work, and a regular mouse at home. Switches up the type of motion so your hand doesn't get so blown out.
...but if you aren't worried about it, then neither am I.
I think you mean "than neither am I."
This looks like a great idea. To bad it costs, what, almost $200? Could something like this be done on a laptop touchpad? Granted its much smaller and so the gestures couldnt be as complex, but it would be a neat little software hack...
-- Senior Software Engineer, Attorney appearance services, locallawyerapp.com.
I'm a graphic designer and I have used pen-based graphics tablets for several years....(I used my first one in Windows 3.11).
After some period of adjustment, many people will use a graphics tablet as a complete mouse replacement....the only time I use a mouse is for FPS games. However, for most other games (and applications for that matter) it is better than a mouse. I feel I can move through the environment with less effort and more precision.
And repetitive stress is lessened. Much of the stress of using a mouse is in the way you rest. Most people assume a resting position when using a mouse that holds their first finger arched over the left-button awaiting the next click. However with a pen-based input, you can rest on the heel of your hand much like when writing.
Give it a try. The models from Wacom are the industry standard.
I don't understand exactly why, but after a month of using laptop touchpads, I experienced long-lasting (and intense) pain in my right index finger, the only finger I used for mouse navigation. Cleared up a couple of weeks after I stopped. I used to get considerable wrist pain which I believe originated from keyboards with reduced tactile feedback. That's all cleared up since switching to one of those old IBM (clackity-clack) keyboards. Pain has subsided considerably; I'm sure not typing any less. The iGuesturePad sounds pretty cool, but I'd be pretty skeptical about claims that it reduces RSI.