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Has Anyone Tried the Quill Mouse?

Posted by Cliff on from the unusual-hardware-designs dept.

Anonymous Coward asks: "Has anyone at Slashdot has heard of or used the Quill Mouse? It's an odd shaped mouse that's supposed to reduce repetitive stress injuries like Carpal Tunnel Syndrome." Rather than grabbing and moving the Quill mouse with your hands, you rest your hand in the Quill's "nook" and move the entire assembly with your arms. Since the palm of your hand is facing inward, you can then click the buttons which have been rotated to match the "nook". The web page says this hand position is less likely to cause RSI than the position a standard mouse requires. Anyone with (or who have used) a Quill Mouse care to comment?

2 of 45 comments (clear)

  1. i like vertical mouse better by sweet+reason · · Score: 5, Informative

    i bought an Evoluent Vertical Mouse from ergo recently, and i like it a lot. (that's a canadian store, and the price is in canadian dollars. for those from the US, that may be attractive.)

    unlike the Quill, it has 5 buttons (including the wheel button), and thus easily replaced my MS explorer trackball. using a Quill i would really miss those other two buttons. it also has a smaller footprint, since your hand surrounds it, rather than being surrounded by it.

    --
    Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler. -- A.E.
  2. Gorilla Arm by Boglin · · Score: 5, Insightful

    While I wish this firm the best of luck, I believe there is a flaw in their system. I remember somewhere about one of the reasons why the touch screen failed (is still not in common use) is that it, like the Quill, relied on the muscles of the upper arm to move the hand around the screen to click (technically touch) the controls. Well, the muscles of the upper armed are designed to provide great force, as opposed to accuracy. The end result was that peoples upper arm got tired far more quickly than the wrist would, and people felt like they had "gorilla arm".

    Now, I have not used this product, nor will I ever; a childhood injury prevents my wrists from rotating in the way necessary to use their mice. Therefore, they may have a perfectly reasonible way of handling the moevments. I'm just worried about their blanket assumption that the shoulder is superior tot he wrist.