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."
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
$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?
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.
Trackballs are okay for some types of PC games, RTSs and RPGs in my experience, but for a fast paced FPS it seems just too hard to keep looking in all directions as well as aim accurately using just a thumb. In those situations a mouse gives you much finer control. You also still at some point have to reposition your thumb, when you spin the ball a full half turn.
Now that I think about it, I suppose the sensitivity of a trackball could be adjusted so that a 'flick' of the thumb moves the player's viewpoint approximately the same as pivoting the wrist would move a mouse, which would equialize things a lot, but I'm still not convinced you'd be able to react as quickly.
If you can't see the value in jet powered ants you should turn in your nerd card. - Dunbal (464142)
(BTW, I think you missed the OP's point...)
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
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 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.
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
It's probably your piano playing that's protected you from mousing pain. That, or you just don't do it enough. It's worth mentioning that there is no correct position for using a traditional mouse, because (as has been noted in the article, but also previously) your wrist is twisted and then rotated when you use a mouse.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"