Slashdot Mirror
Are Vertical Mice The Next Ergonomic Trend?
ThinSkin writes "Devoid of kookiness like many of its ergonomic counterparts, the VerticalMouse 2 is shaped like an ordinary mouse, only turned 90 degrees so that your arm is in a natural 'handshake position.' ExtremeTech's review of the VerticalMouse 2 suggests that its horsepower and familiar feel make it a worthy candidate to replace a horizontal mouse. Some of the drawbacks include its $75 price tag and difficulty to pick up in 3D gaming scenarios."
... yeeesss, this 'handshake position' seems very familiar somehow.
Seriously though, might I suggest inventing a self cleaning keyboard/mousepad.
Superb Hosting
If you compare the design of the VerticalMouse 2 with the Quill Mouse, you can see that they're virtually identical...with one important difference. The Quill Mouse is equipped with a shelf where the edge of your hand rests. The VerticalMouse 2 has no such shelf. Without a support for your hand, you'll have to support the weight of your hand by:
or,
Now add to all this the discomfort the large-handed will suffer as the edge of their hands develop friction burns against their desktops.
Any way you slice it, this product is a bad design and a non-starter. Save your money.
____
~ |rip/\/\aster /\/\onkey
A main driver for this is the desire to reduce the risk or pain associated with carpal tunnel syndrome and other RSI disorders ... The idea is to allow your arm to control the mouse in a more natural position, with the thumb up, in a hand-shaking position. Doctors who specialize in ergonomics consider this position preferable.
I have to ask, did anyone at ExtremeTech actually talk to a doctor who specializes in such things, or were these comments lifted from an Evoluent press release?
The reality of RSI is just so, so much more complex than these simple solutions would suggest.
Although how can you argue with a review like this:
Gained all the votes in terms of comfort and facility of use, of "look", colour and sympathy: the panel as a whole totally adhered to this new product.
Three Squirrels
Ages ago I had a Gyration GyroMouse which totally kicked butt. With a mouse free from having to make contact with a horizontal surface, plus the fact I clicked with my thumb, rather than stressing my index finger, I found it to be a natural and easy feel. The only caveat was as the mouse remained in my palm the piezo-gyros would warm up a bit and the mouse would drift a little, but recalibration wasn't hard to do. $75 isn't an issue when you're talking about getting a superior mouse.
Poo. I've got some real ideas on how a mouse really should work, which could allow hands to remain on the keyboard, but after seeing an idea of mine ripped right off of /. and for sale on ThinkGeek, you
can guess why I won't post any of these ideas.
and it makes toast, too!
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Basically, no they're not. No more than we are ever going to drive our cars using joysticks or keyboards. People like what they're used to. This is a gimmick. Move along, nothing to see here.
Tomorrow, I may eat another house plant
Trackballs are the way to go. I don't know why we ever chose a mouse over a trackball. They are much easier, as you don't have to move your hand/arm all over the place. Only your fingers and thumb move. Since switching to a trackball, I have much less problems with wrist pain. Also, I find that trackballs are more accurate, and work greate for PC gaming, because you don't have to lift and reposition it every few seconds.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
I am hardly a trend setter. That said, I finally got disgusted with the equipment treadmill that gaming was putting me through and went 100% console for gaming. Sure, its not the same and sure, it took a while to get used to the console joysticks but now I wouldn't go back. As much as I will miss some types of games that are only possible with complex interfaces like what is possible with a mouse and keyboard, I am thankful I don't have to deal with video/sound card upgrades every year. Battlefield 2 is what totally did me in, BTW.
The mouse looks interesting and probably would do wonders for coding, document creation and other more useful things than 3D gaming!
--Pete
You still move your wrist so it wont cut it unless there is a trackball for the thumb. I have contemplated slapping some wood on a logitech trackball to have it be upright similar to this mouse and seeing just how good it can be.
Do you changes clothes while making the "chee-chee-cha-cha-choh" transformation sound?
Get perpendiculahar...
$75 for the righty version. It is $105 for the lefty version. No wonder lefties are continually forced to conform to a right handed world. It was bad enough going to Catholic school, but I thought that the lefty-discrimination was over once I broke out...
You are in a maze of little twisting passages, all different.
For tennis elbow?
One of the major reasons that the standard mouse caught on is that a 2-year old child can understand the concept of reaching out and grabbing something. The traditional mouse layout mimics this behavior. This 90-degree rotated mouse is counter-intuitive to reaching out and grabbing...
Long story short, you might like using this mouse but don't count on it ever replacing the current "horizontal" mouse for standard users.
The only way to overcome the problem of carpal tunnel syndrome with regard to computer interfaces is to get rid of physical input devices altogether. Voice, eye tracking, subvocal implants, those are the input devices that will rid us of the current spate of RSI and the limitations of the WIMP paradigm. Imagine not needing to even have a screen but just knowing the reply you got from your computer inherently. That's where we're headed in the next 10-15 years. This is just a ploy to garner some money from people who have a problem that isn't beaing dealt with correctly. It's a lot like the flagellists of the days of yore. They whipped themselves because they believed it was the only honest way to talk to god. These days they've wised up and just pray internally. Same thing. Make sense?
-"...bad old ideas look confusingly fresh when they are packaged as technology" - Jaron Lanier (Digital Maoism on Edge.o
So, if these take off, will we be top-clicking and bottom-clicking? Or maybe we'll renamed it index-clicking, middle-clicking and ring-clicking? Or maybe we'll just still call it left and right vestigially, sort of like the way we still click on 3.5 inch floppy icons to save files to other media...
*boggle*
vk.
As someone who fatigues easily using a mouse, I've just gotten accustomed to switching hands every few minutes. That doesn't seem possible with this new design.
I've owned a few vertical mice like this, formerly known as "Dr. Mouse", now it's the "3M Renaissance" Mouse. I've had no complaints. Zero. They're fantastic. I'm using one right now. I got my friends hooked on them too.
This signature is being generated randomly.
*Tilts arm 90 degrees* *Tilts arm back* Nope.
I have RSI problems in my hands and forearms and elbows. Not carpal tunnel syndrome- various inflammations that never seem to completely heal. Doctors have been little use, medical science doesn't seem to have caught up with RSI.
Anyway I tried a vertical mouse (from evoluent) for several months. Eventually I started to find it uncomfortable and switched back to a normal mouse. I never found it to make much of a difference one way or another.
I also use a Kinesis Essential keyboard, which I've also not found to make a big difference one way or another.
I could see a tilted mouse working but full on vertical is a non-starter I think. My guess would be that vertial is to steep for the vast majority of people. Shaking hands is something that one does breifly and therefore I am willing to move my body into a less than optimal position. I don't find shaking hands particularly comfortable therefore I don't think I would find shakign hands all day with a mouse comfortable. Anyway, the big problem I see is that the mouse will tend to move away as you click. This makes sense as it has nothing to push against. A hand rest would solve that at teh expense of making the device clunky.
I used to have a better sig but it broke.
It looks like an electric pencil sharpener. The girl next to me agrees.
games journalism blog
This could make looking at pr0n awkward
This is totally true, and is not TROLLBAIT.
You pay more for left handed equipment because manufacturing costs are dramatically higher when you don't make as many on an assembly line. Point blank.
Modesty is one of life's greatest attributes
Well let's start with the eye tracking. It would be completely useless for imaging applications. Well, for one thing, the mouse pointer would always be on any women's breasts and crotch.
The Voice tracking and sub-vocal, well, that wouldn't work for the same causes as the eye-tracking.
The WIMP paradigmn wouldn't work for people who are afraid of dangerous things. Oh, WIMP is an acronym - oops! Sorry!
More than a hundred years ago telegraphers discovered that a key that moved side to side instead of up and down and that allowed the hand to be vertical instead of horizontal greatly reduced the incidence of the dreaded "glass arm". There have been and still are lots of keys produced that take advantage of this. For one of the prime examples, see the productes still offered by Vibroplex.
73
"Do the Right Thing. It will gratify some people and astound the rest." - Mark Twain
I find that any RSI-type discomfort I feel has more to do with poor wrist cushioning, particularly if the mouse is too close to the desk edge and the desk edge puts sharp pressure on my inner wrist or arm.
If you have wrist discomfort, be sure you're using a wrist pad to rule out that as a source of pressure.....
Give a man a fish and you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish, and he'll say "WHERE'S MY FISH, YOU IDIOT?"
I love my trackball too but a vertical Trackball might be pretty nice too, did a quick google search but wasnt able to find any. Is there such a device?
"I am a kernel in the linux army"
...now, instead of suffering from carpal tunnel, we'll be suffering from Kung Fu Grip.
Ok, on the graphic example of the "twisted" arm, the hand holding the regular mouse, is twised WAY to far.
(Link to graphic in the article here.)
Also, it seems to me, holding the mouse in a 90 degree angle, like their many examples show, would stress my THUMB more than holding a regular mouse would stress my "twisted" arm..
Try it yourself. Hold your arm like in their example, pretend like your holding the 90 degree mouse. Now move your wrist 90 degrees, as if you were going to hold a mouse. I'm not sure about everybody else, but my wrist mostly moved, NOT my arm.
Nice try though.
-Mikey
Is there anything stopping you from using a regular optical mouse on the side of your monitor? Or, if you have an LCD a book or peice of wood or something?
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
Somehow, I was expecting not a mouse oriented differently, but a mouse that you would actually move in the vertical plane... it makes more sense now that I actually looked at TFA.
Stop! Dremel time!
I have one of these. It helped my wrist pain, a lot. I have one both at work and at home. It works fine for games, be it counterstrike or civ IV.
As a FPS-gamer I ask you one thing, how do you move your mouse ?
;) ) would be used to track the target which is part of our physical abilities
:
:)
;)
with the arm, or holding the mouse with in the fist ?
it´s different and sequenced, for not so fine movement, you engage your arm,
this is even different wether you are a high sensitiviy or a low sensitiviy player,
but when locking onto the target you use your wrist in combination with your fingers, it´s the natural fine motor movement, now think how would you
use a "vertical mice" I don´t think it will work with the fine motor movement,
simply because the "normal" mouse is a device dedicated to fine motor manipulations,
what can be done is to try to make the optical mice smaller so it would fit into
a pen-shaped form, so the "*Pinzettengriff"(ger) "tweezers griff"(transbloated
dedicated for fine motor manipulations.
So my conclusion simply identifies this as a marketing trick to sell more mice,
because since the first mice back in the days when IT pioneers invented things,
it had a ball, then the CCD-technology and embeded system got such good so
they could be used to track the motion of a mice, Hoorray no more mouse cleaning
the DPIs was pushed, this was the natural way of technical devellopment,
after that, not so long ago we got the laser/optical mice, with
such high resolution and sensitivity that noone except online gamers
would pay the prices,
so here we are, but the firms want to sell mices, so what you need for this
- a Pro Gamer (a living, running organism, which is near to the common Web-AD)
who will say I play with it, I like it (I can buy me food for this)
- a designer he will sketch something, and will say it´s the best
ergonomic design, it will keep you from getting pain.
- a marketing man, a living sleezy something, a dangerous lifeform,
if you come to close in his range he will buzzword you and turn you into
a zombie, then he lay his egs into your carcass, you won´t die, but your money
is their ambrosia
*Pinzettengriff - "put your thumb and his neighbour together like a tweezers",
this is it
The nurse at work gave me one of these to try when I requested the Logitech mouse I normally use. Probal I had with it was when I wanted to move the mouse to the left, I had troble doing it without pushing the mouse buttons. No good.
When I first got an office job, I had also recently started rowing/sculling. I started getting really sore one day, which I attributed to the rowing, so I took a couple of days off. It only got worse. When I finally went back, the paint subsided substantially. While this might not work for some here, I found regular exercise outside of the office has kept me from having any more problems...
Why do people on computers have so many injuries, but musicians, pianists included, seem to not have any?
and I
can
really
recomm
end
i
t
.
(sigh)
N/A
Um, where is the pinky supposed to go when you use this?
Looks like they had Mickey Mouse in mind as the user for this thing
My girlfriend uses the VerticalMouse 2 (photo) and it's come to be known in our circle of friends as "Homer Simpson's Shoe", mainly because of me constantly reminding her that it looked a bit like Homer Simpson's shoe. With some purple parts.
In any case, after using it for a few months, the pains she had been experiencing in her arm from using a regular mouse are gone.
I can't believe no one has mentioned graphics tablets yet!
Circumcision is child abuse.
Like many of you I'm trying to prevent doing myself a permanent injury by mouse usage. I have a normal cordless mouse, a Logitech cordless trackman trackball and a 3M ergonomic mouse (which is vertical but a better design than this thing I reckon). The 3M vertical mouse saved my wrist, but in recent months shoulder pain has started - there's a lot of repetitive shoulder movement with a vertical mouse. So I got the trackball, which is better, but a bit hard on the hand (the thumb in my case).
I definitely recommend a vertical mouse to save your tendons, but keep both plugged in - I find that switching between my 3 (!) mice is the best way to avoid over-stressing myself, or rather, to spread the stress out. If I had to choose one it would probably be the trackball right now (though it's the least precise of the mice) but the vertical mouse would be a close second.
Doesn't it seem strange that using a mouse can hurt you in the long run? But it's true.
Everyone knows that damage is done to the soul by bad motion pictures. -Pope Pius XI
I use a Wacom board with a pen. The hand is at a relaxed angle, not horisontal, not vertical, somewhere inbetween.
Now these boards are a bit more expensive than those mice described in the article, but I think they cause less stress. Certainly so for gaming, as you already hold the pen in your hand, and moving it is no more work than moving the pen to the next line when writing with pen and paper.
I bought the board when I started feeling pains in my wrist after playing too much Diablo2, and the pain went away, I haven't had any problems since, and that was two or three years ago now.
I used to sell these; maybe not this model, but this design has been around for at least five years. Good in theory - it eliminates the unnatural twisting of the hand - but in practice there's hardly a market for it.
The companies that sell these (I know, I used to work for one) aren't actually aiming for the disabled-by-RSI market - in practice, there's very few people who actually HAVE disabling computer related RSI, and those that do usually just cut down on the intensity of their computer use - who they're aiming for is big businesses (call centres and the like) who they try and scare with the 'Unless you buy ten thousand of these, your employees will get RSI and SUE YOU!!!' line. Nobody much buys it, except maybe in the USA.
Of course, the bottom line is, does it actually work? When selling this kind of thing I tried using this and a variety of other 'ergonomic' mice intensively, and most of them gave me more pain than a 'normal' mouse did - mainly because my use of a normal mouse adapts easily depending on what position it is in relative to me, whereas these vertical mice have to be used sitting straight at the desk with your hand and arm in the 'proper' position. Anything else - especially using it standing up - is extremely difficult and contorts your hand unnaturally.
I hate to piss all over somebody's design, but I've seen so many different 'ergonomic' mice come and go. None of them has caught on - the only one that has got close is Microsoft's curvy mouse, and that's just because MS had enough investment power behind them to put one in the box of every new computer. Interestingly, I haven't seen one of them for a while, all the same.
I recently tried over $500 in pointing devices to help with carpal tunnel from playing internet poker and I'm settled on the evoluent mouse. Here are some criticisms of other alternatives:
3M Mouse: Has no scroll wheel. That makes this mouse completely useless to me.
Quill Mouse: The "shelf" is made of hard plastic. I much prefer using huge soft mousepads and resting my hands on those.
Trackball: Fine for normal use, impossible to play 10 tables of poker with.
Air/Gyration mice: Fun for a few minutes, but tiresome longer than that.
I bought one of these:
http://www.monstergecko.com/products.html
Great mouse, and cheap too at $20. An added bonus is it frightens those who think like small children.
I already use my regular mouse with my hand vertical, my index finger drapes across the mouse to the button. This mouse would presumably make it more comfortable. I'm tired though of paying through the nose for hardware that is designed ergonomically. To try out all the interesting ideas would cost thousands. I wish there was some organisation which tested out all the neat ideas and then went to Dell and IBM etc and told them to make it mainstream.
If you thought it was easy enough to move that mouse just a notch, before putting that dot, connecting that poly, etc .... with a normal mouse, your problems will multiply with that.
:) and when not - I use a trackball ...
I am not a CAD worker nor a GFX designer, but mice annoy the hell out of me enough. I personally have a trackball, one that is an old Logi design, and that pointer has a approx 35 degree button surface, so the idea is not entirely new.
I actually beleive, that an angle smaller than 90 is more appropriate and a more natural rest.
But hey, what does that matter? I type all day on the console
summary: I think it is a really retarded design
I have one of these for my HTPC (ok a 900MHz/192MB/5 year old PVR) and you are exactly right. It allows you to use it at any angle and works perfectly for those who just need to move a bit every now and then to get comfortable. In fact, since the device easily resets when you use it there are no calibrations needed.
Works great as a desktop mouse because of the featured optical eye and comes with a great recharging stand (I love the way the LED throbs as it is being charged!).
I would just warn against leaving the mouse on a reflective or glass surface. I tend to leave mine on our glass coffee table where the laser thinks it saw something move... ALL DAY LONG. The laser bouncing around in the glass, combined with cats and feet under the table make the battery die a real quick death.
Get your Unix fortune now!
In october-november '05 the wrist pain started. Actually, my fingers were a little numb. Which is kind of worrying as I'm only 22.
I couldnt hardly work at all, gave up playing games, but still everything sucked.. then I bought a 3M ergonomic mouse. Best 40$ I have ever spent.
It saved my wrist. I could even play FPS and RTS with this thing. It's great.. I even take it with my laptop, just everywere.. =)
...the vertical bacon sandwich.
For all intensive porpoises your a bunch of rediculous loosers
...they have announced that the 'handshake position' mouse will include a model which is made out of 'beef'.
The best mouse input device has to be the red stick on those Thinkpad laptops. It's accurate, has a nice feel to it (as long as you use on of the big red things) and doesn't strain your hand if the mouse speed is fairly high.
The question isn't whether they are the new trend but whether they should be the new trend. If vertical mice are really better and more comfortable for the user, then it absolutely should be a trend because it will help people. If, on the gripping hand, the mice are just something new and funky, then this should not be a trend.
Keep the faith, share the code
Has anybody ever noticed that when using Apples old pro mouse (one button mouse previous to mighty mouse) that they have less discomfort due to the mouse click being evenly distributed accross all fingers? I find myself much more comfortable with these mice then using two-button mice ad the single click with my index finger causes me discomfort after prolonged use.
I've been using an ergonomic mouse at work for five or six years, ever since having discomfort in two of my fingers during an intense period of work. It's contoured to my hand, and has a slope of about 35 degrees that lays my arm in a comfortable and natural position. I find it excellent, and I can do anything with it that I do with a symmetric one (except use it comfortably in the other hand). Based on the report, I'd say that the one I have is less vertical than this one; to be honest, from my own experience, I question whether the extra tilt is really achieving anything (other than making it a little harder to pick up), or whether (as other people have suggested) it's a bit of a gimmic.
Oh - and unlike this one, the one I have came in a range of sizes, giving me a mouse that meets *my* needs, rather than a "one size fits all" solution. I'll stick with what I have, thanks.
Maybe it's because I've been using traditional computer keyboards and mice for 20+ years, of maybe it's because I've been playing drums for 15+ years, but to me the "wrists flat" position for my forearms seems a lot more natural than the "handshake" position.
I mean, the human body wasn't designed for holding our forearms out parallel to the floor for long periods, anyway -- so what difference does the rotational position of the arm make?
This shows how MS and logitech have stunted mouse design by emphasizing their dpi's instead of functionality.
1) The scroll wheel should be relocated to where the mouse thumb buttons are. Look at your first and ring fingers when you scroll. They move involuntarily cause it's unatural. While a thumb scroll wheel would be natural. Pretend there's a scroll wheel underneath your thumb. Notice how left to right motion doesn't affect the whole hand.
2) I'm not sure how unix folks let ms/logitech get rid of the middle mouse button. Middle used to be 'select + copy'. Now that pushing down on the scroll wheel is the middle button, does anyone really use this? I've remapped the middle button to a thumb button, but I feel the motion isn't as intuitive as clicking with the first mouse button. One is downward, while the other requires you to hold the mouse firmly before pressing the button.
3) What happened to the 180 flick turn? Old School FPS's know what I'm talking about. When you had ball mouses, you tilted the mouse 10 degrees and repositioned. Now with optical mouses, I see people actually picking up the mouse off of the table. (Yes, I'm used to optical mouses now, but I can tell which required less movement.)
I've posted these ideas on logitech's forum. if anyone uses them, feel free to send me a mouse!
I thought they already had a good solution for the horizontal mouse! In fact, I using one right now!
It plays OK in games. I find it occasionally "sticks" in one place for a few seconds. Its rare enough that it doesn't affect the overall gaming experience. I use this mouse in Planetside, BF2, CS:S, FEAR, etc.
They recently released a new driver which does seem to have helped a lot.
I do recommend:
Save the Music; Save the World at http://www.TuneTriever.com (Our latest Android game)
I'll be VERY happy, otherwise, I'll VERY be crippled soon. =/
the only permanence in existence, is the impermanence of existence.
you have to use some self discipline to remember to move the mouse from the elbow, and not bend at the wrist, but it's pretty easy to get used to.
. aspx
/ ErgoRest_Arms.htm
after switching to a handshake mouse, you'll really feel the difference when twisting your forearms to type at a natural keyboard. i found it really important to switch to an angled keyboard as well:
http://www.keyovation.com/c-2-ergonomic-keyboards
i've also got a couple of ergorests to round out the combination heheh:
http://www.ergomart.com/ergonomic_forearm_support
it's an expensive setup, but worth it. i've slowly been winning over my coworkers as well.
seems like ergonomic problems are as unique as peoples' bodies, though, so the setup that's perfect for me hurts the guy that sits next to me and vice versa.
no fools.
35-45 degrees. have the hand rest along a countoured slope with the thumb on the other side keeping your hand from sliding off. like the microsoft trackball explorer dsign.
For most people, the keyboard is still a significant UI and key-tomouse transitions won't be facilitated by having to go through a flat (keyboard) to vertical (mouse) sequence.
Perhaps a more natural thing would be to to use your feet under the desk or something like that.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
Oh! New hardware. I didn't read TFA.
Still, though, I'm equally submissive to my keyboard and mouse at work for eight hours a day, so it might not be much of a change.
Qualitas edurus commercium, nullus penitus net rimor, nullus deus beneficium
OK, so, combining a "Power Glove (Nintendo)"-like device and this vertical mousing device should produce the greatest peripheral known to mankind. Thud your hand down on the mousepad and drag it around to point. Twitch fingers to click. Flick thumb across wheel in palm to scroll.
Yet another mouse design!
Whhy is it that the ordinary mouse has remained virtually unchanged. It's a good design. The problem is not which way you hold the mouse, but wether your elbow has any support.
I have one wish:
Give me a mouse i can use with my FEET so I can use the keyboard with both HANDS!!!
That would be a revolution...
#find
I've been using the VM2 since Christmas. I don't find the lack of shelf to be a problem, though if I'd known about the quill I may have opted for it instead, I suppose. Regardless, I rest my (admitedly largish) hand on my desk, I got rid of the mousepad all-together. All-in-all I'm quite happy with the mouse, and it has offered a modicum of relief from CTS. Here are some critical comments however:
:)
1. It's obviously much taller than your regular mouse, so for the first couple weeks you'll find that you whack it sideways when you go to reach for it
2. Sometimes I hit more than just the button I'm trying to click because I'm working a little too hard to keep the mouse steady (I expect I'll get past this as I get more accustomed to it.)
3. I can't come up with a 3.
Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind. - Dr. Seuss
why not a mousepad with an adjustable sideways slope? it would do the same thing but with 'normal' mice. First to the patent office, wins the prize.
There was an unknown error in the submission.
Isn't this called a "joystick"?
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
This mouse has like 5 buttons... What's next? 6 buttons?
That's ridiculous!
What would anyone do with all those extra buttons?
My mouse has 1 button and that's all I need.
-MacUser
Bah, I thought this was a mouse that you moved up and down instead of on the horizon like traditional mouses. The mouse in the article is stupid. **thumbs down to suckass designs**
The comfort of a pronated, or palm-down, hand position depends on where your hand is positioned. With your forearm resting near your torso, a pronated position will be less stressful. If you rotate your arm from this position so that your forearm is pointing out toward your side at your waste, the supinated (palm-up) position becomes more comfortable.
"I got it, we'll make a mouse that nobody can use and that will keep them from physically gaining access to user's systems"
"So they will have to use just the keyboard?"
"Yes, most people don't know how to use a computer without a mouse."
"Brilliant!"
upright walking mice invade his sleep..
Just as long as you don't make them 6 feet tall with clobbering hands; this way I can still run like hell when I see one. Will they still carry plages and such?
I don't want a pickle; I just want a Motor-Cycle! A four foot cop arrived with a five foot gun!
I miss the old school trackballs that my dad had in the late 80's/early 90's with the huge balls in them. I remember pulling them out of the mice, and throwing the ball at his servers when I was little. They were great for KidPix.
Sig: I stole this sig.
Well, that's the reason why touch screens are only used in special applications (where they *are* rather useful).
But try using your finger instead of your mouse. The hassle of cleaning the glass aside, your arm will feel tired and thick quite quickly - hence the term "Gorilla Arm". Me Old Fart already saw touch-sensitive PCs waybackwhen on the HPs, and they flopped nicely.
Thus, having to hold your mouse like this is not going to help much. Except, maybe, in specialist applications again.
Free PC version of ChipWits at http://www.breueronline.de/klaus/chipwits/
Actually, I had the same problem with the Anir/3M ergonomic mouse (the one that looks like a....er, flight stick).
Even though it *does* have a shelf built into it, if I allowed my lower arm to be in any other posture than the "ideal," it caused me great pain in my hand. Needless to say, holding your arm "just so" for hours at a time is simply exhausting, so you end up leaning on the mouse and hurting yourself. I have gone back to a regular mouse.
OTOH, the Anir/3M would probably be perfect for people wearing a wrist brace, who *can't* limber up their lower arm.
Is it just me or does it resemble something from the "Dune" movie, or an Alien head from one of the "Aliens" movies?
The Russians have won. They have made the world a cesspool of distrust, greed, fear and hate.
Holding your hand in a vertical position is just as cumbersome as holding it in a horizontal position and will not relieve RSI (except for the first while, simply because it's different to the position you've grown used to). Put your hands totally relaxed on top of the table, upper arms hanging straight down, the elbow in a 90 degree angle, and look at the angle your hands make with the table top. It's approximately 45 degrees. That is how you want your hand resting on your mouse, any deviation from this position will cause unnecessairy strain.
Logitech have been getting this right for years with their line of asymetrical optical mices (the laser mouse being the latest addition). This vertical mouse is just as far from ideal as the horizontal one, about 45 degrees, only the other way.
I haven't used this particular mouse, so I can't comment on it. I have, however, used a different "vertical" mouse called the "3M Renaissance Mouse" (e.g. http://www.3m.com/cws/renmouse.html ) for several years. I swear by it, in that all my RSI symptoms vanished once I started using it. I've also recommended it to two friends with RSI problems and they also swear by it. Your mileage my vary, of course. Check it out!
...I actually naturally hold the mouse sort of like that. My fingers seem to click sideways instead of down, if you can visualize that there. hmmm.
---Excuse the bad English, I'm American---
Took a week or two to get used to it. The trickiest thing is that when you click, you are exerting force horizontally, not vertically like a normal mouse. With a normal mouse, the table resists the force. But with the vertical mouse, you have to train yourself to counter this force with your thumb. I don't even think about it now.
The software is also somewhat crunky and I suspect it was causing BSODs, but it works reasonably well with the standard Microsoft mouse stuff.
I'm glad I got it and I like using it. I was getting strain from most mice save the cheapo low profile Compaq one I had laying around. Mice are so thick these days, forcing you to arch your hands.
But it has not had anywhere near the impact on life that I got by switching to the Kinesis keyboard.
Does it hurt to hear them lying? Was this the only world you had?
In August 2004 I got RSI. I was on sickleave for almost 2 months.
I changed my working place:
Out with the old Keytronic Keyboard, and in with Logitech Comfort.
Out with the old standard Logitech mouse, in with the VerticalMouse 2.
I installed WorkRave, which is a nice app which tells you to take breaks once in a while.
After a couple of months with this setup both at home and at work, I didn't seem to get the effect I wanted.
I changed my mouse at home to the standard mouse which is bundled with the Logitech Comfort. There was the key: change working habits during the day has made my right wrist almost as good as new.
Now I use a computer for approx 10-12 hours a day (minus the breaks which WorkRave tells me I have to have), and only on very stressed days, I can feel some pain in my right wrist.
Love and hate are one in all
P.
It's not quite a vertical mouse but it's a similar concept. With the help of a friend I created a vertical trackball, which has served me quite well for several years at work. Take a Logitech "Marble Mouse", and attach (with wires, there must be a better way, but hey it works) a piece of wood shaped like a triangular prism, with one side of the triangle the length and width of the trackball, and the other sides a similar size. The effect of the piece of wood is that it tilts the trackball at a 45 degree angle. Reverse the mouse buttons, use the trackball with your index finger, and wallah, you have a USB "handshake position" pointing device for $30 or so, plus a little quality time with a table saw and pliers.
One foot to move back and fourth and step where the icon is, the other for the three buttons, and the hands free to type on the keys... I mean, one foot to move back and fourth and step where the pedal is, the other for the three pedals, and the hands free to play on the manuals. I, for one, welcome our new Organist overlords.