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Shake Hands with the Zero Tension Mouse
ThinSkin writes "Given its shape and ability to cup your hand, the Zero Tension Mouse can be moved around without bending the wrist or moving the fingers, while also keeping the hand in a vertical position and the arm in a more ergonomic neutral position. ExtremeTech reviews the Zero Tension Mouse and, although acknowledging it as 'funny looking,' concludes that it amounts to a whole lot of worth for those who need it, or those who want to take preventative measures against RSI and related ailments."
Somehow I can't help thinking that all these devices that supposedly "help prevent" "RSI" are the modern equivalent of snake oil... Would be nice if products had to undergo proper medical testing (done by real scientists, that is, not quack doctors with a degree in "office therapy") before they could make such claims...
Yes, it does look like something the goatse guy might shove up his ass.
I see this as a legitimate product. It doesn't take a medical degree or a huge budget to see that if RSI is caused by using a particular joint, avoiding that joint avoids the problem. You do not need to move your wrist at all to use this mouse. A device built from a sound principle, no snake oil involved.
Like the Dvorak keyboard, ergonomic innovations that force people to relearn basic skills are bound for failure irrespective of the upside. Companies should instead develop ergonomic enhancements that integrate into the existing workspace.
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...worthless
Thou shalt commit sarcasm
Buy a friggin' graphics tablet!
Circumcision is child abuse.
... It's called a Logitech TrackMan Marble FX. Keeps the pressure on the outer side of your hand and away from the carpal tunnel. I bought three for ~$50 each back in the day. Last I checked, the were going on eBay for ~$100. Too bad they're discontinued.
These opinions guaranteed or your money back.
I remember seeing the first boxy mice and thinking they were funny looking. "What's the use of a keypad with only two buttons on it? What? You're supposed to MOVE it?"
And yes, I did have to walk to school when I was a child. Uphill. Both ways.
You know, I used to buy all cordless devices.
About a year ago I realized I wasn't using the cordless feature at all. At work I simply trapped the cord under a monitor and the cord never got in the way. At home I sat in front of the computer. Why bother with cordless? 99% of the time it wasn't a benefit.
About three months ago I got killed in City of Heroes because my batteries ran out at the wrong moment.
I'm not replacing my mouse and keyboard yet. But next time I need new peripherals, they're going to be corded. Cordless is cool and all, I'm not disputing that. I'm just questioning whether it's actually useful.
Breaking Into the Industry - A development log about starting a game studio.
What he's claiming is simply that they shouldn't claim that they don't cause RSI unless they can back it up. Truth in advertising.
This is something very different from banning products.
KFG
I can see that this might work for gamers or whatever who just click their whole lives away. For a lot of us (programmers etc), mouse movements are interspersed with keyboard actions, so you need a pointing device that is close to the keyboard. My favourite it the cursor pad, a regular mouse is OK too. For a vertical orientation input device you need to make larger movements and keep rolling your wrist as you move from keyboard to mouse. Can't see this being efficient or easy.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
My head is stuck in the cupboard!
Why yes, I AM a rocket scientist!
A person with wrist problems in our office has been using a joystick-like mouse for a long time. It's hard to use for me, and gives me a sore elbow. Maybe I am using it wrong, but after having learned how to protect my wrist using a conventional mouse, I would rather not start over and having to learn to protect my elbow from a new product that doesn't offer any real advantage.
How many of thes things have we seen that are supposed to put your hand in a more natural position?
They all end up at Big Lots for $9 after six months...
From the looks of that scroll wheel, it's going to be a banner year for RSI - grab the top of a bottle and roll your thumb straight back and forth over the top like the pictures show for the scroll wheel. If you can do that for more than a minute, you're not put together right.
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
Yep... that's sounds like a hand position that most slashdotters are quite familiar with! Hmm... I wonder what the inventor was doing when he first got the idea for this mouse?
I bought one of these over a year ago, as part of my tendonitis-triggered moratorium on regular mice. I used it pretty extensively until I got a Kensington Expert Mouse Trackball, which I find gives a better match for my needs while maintaining good ergonomics. I still pack this one with me whenever I'm going somewhere (e.g. campus computer labs) that has nasty mice in it. It's pretty nice in my experience (i.e. it doesn't make my tendonitis go crazy like regular mice), though the motions required are a bit odd in its own way, leaving me to just put my hand on top of it every now and then and use it like a really tall, funkily-buttoned, regular mouse.
-- I prefer the term "karma escort."
I have severe, very severe, as in on federal disability for 5 years, $1500/month medications, arthritis. The fingers of my right hand are turning to the left (Ulnar deviation), and the base joint of my index finger is basically destroyed (subluxation). I developed 'sausage fingers', where the joints swelled so much and so fast I got stretch marks on my fingers. 4 doctors, one of whom was in a wheelchair determined my arthritis bad enough to make me unable to work. Right now with the medications, I'm working, but with the knowledge that I'm slowly destroying my hands.
I looked at some of the previous ergo mice, and they mostly have the flaw mentioned in the article of having to grip the mouse to push it away (up the screen), I have difficulty with doorknobs, bottlecaps, and steering wheels, gripping is a problem. I also used to work in the Microsoft Hardware (mouse/keyboard) group testing device drivers, where I was working at the time I suddenly developed arthritis (genetic cause, not from work), so I do have some knowledge about pointing devices.
This mouse is basically exactly what the physical therapists described as ideal; hand in the hand-shake position, not needing to bend the wrist, with the arm relaxed. and at $80 it's not bad compared to some ergo devices. It's not a 'quack' device, it's designed to help a real, legitimate medical/work issue. If it's lightweight and Optical (I hate mechanical mice so very very much), I'll buy several. Another few years of work would repay the cost a few thousand times over..
At a press conference introducing the "radical" Microsoft curved mouse, Bill Gates talked about how 7 million dollars was spent just on ergonomics.
Then a reporter asked about the availability of a left-handed version. After a two second pause, the audience was told that it works either way.
Telegraph and wireless operators had similar RSI problems going back, probably at least, to the 1860's. They called it having a "glass arm". The JH Bunnell Double Speed key, also known as a side-swiper, was patented in 1888 to help solve this problem and was sold well into the 1920's when it was replaced by semi-automatic keys known as "bugs" (first patent 1892). The operation of the side-swiper was such that the motion was side to side instead of up and down. There is a contact on either side of the armature or lever so pressing the lever either way made the contact. There was no attempt to automate the dots as the later semi-automatic keys did. You can find example pictures online by searching for "Cootie key" or "side-swiper" key. I have one of the early Bunnell cooties in my telegraph apparatus collection.
"Do the Right Thing. It will gratify some people and astound the rest." - Mark Twain
If injury is caused due to mouse utilization via the right hand, use the mouse with your left hand for a while. This would give the injury time to heal. This is something I tried a few years back and although there's a bit of a learning curve (I was sloppy and slow at moving the pointer at first) I don't even think about it now. My girlfriend also tried this approach due to tension in her right shoulder.
Huh, you think you're tough. A real computer only needs a kernel, a shell, and ed. ed for programming (binary), ed for writing, ed for editing pictures/movies/music (hexadecimally), ed as a browser, ed for everything. Output other than "?" is useless.
Stupidity is like nuclear power, it can be used for good or evil. And you don't want to get any on you.
I'm really not convinced of this thing's utility. It's assuming that since a neutral "handshake" position puts the least strain on a person's wrist, it must be best to hold it in that position all the time. Joints are made to be used, so it's silly to decide that immobilizing them will solve the problem. I suspect that staying immobile too long is a bad idea. The real problem is, like the acronym says, repetetive *strain*. Learning to use your joints in the way they work best will get you farther than locking them in place.
Guitarists, for example play for long stretches at a time, but most (decent ones) don't end up hurting themselves. Anyone who's played the guitar can tell you that it's not really an ergonomically constructed device. Why don't we hurt ourselves when we twist our wrists backwards and make strange movements very quickly, while office workers manage to destroy their wrists pushing buttons and scooting a mouse around? First of all, musicians practice for hours to figure out how not to hurt their wrists. Second, musicians don't usually play for eight hours straight. My advice to anyone who feels an RSI coming on is to take breaks, but also to examine very closely how you operate these devices. Are you bending your wrist funny to move the mouse, or reaching with a single finger rather than moving your whole hand when typing?
Basically, it's okay to move joints within their range of motion all you like, but every joint has positions in which it can take some stress, and positions in which it can't. Everyone has been told to "always lift with your legs." You need to know similar rules for other joints. You stress a joint whenever you move it out of its safest position then try to exert force through it. For keyboarding, this means reaching with a finger or bending your wrists back then trying to press a key. Keeping your wrists straight and moving your whole hand when you reach for a key is the way to go. Also, making sure never to stretch your hand out when chording is a good idea. Left shift for right hand keys, and vice versa. For mousing, putting your whole hand on the mouse and bending your wrist to move it strains you unduly. A better solution is to hold it with your fingertips and use every joint you can to distribute the action. The fingertips and wrist for fine motion, and the rest of the arm for gross motions. It's also helpful to rotate your hands a little closer to the handshake position, for both mousing and keyboarding.
Of course, some people have already sustained joint damage, and may need to immobilize the joint until it heals. After that, better mousing technique should prevent further trouble, unless you're prone to injury for some other reason.
IANAPT, but I am a guy who types a lot, mouses a lot, and plays a lot of musical instruments, but has never sustained an RSI (except once when I played with a noisemaker for too long). I attribute that to my amazing technique.
IIRC the first such mouse was designed by a Norwegian company. (The mouse looks exactly like the one 3M makes, so I guess they licensed the design.) Anyway, to lend some credit to your excellent observation, I can add that "mouse" in Norwegian is in fact a common slang for the Holy Grail of Objects Unattainable to the Average Slashdot User: the female reproductive organ*. Taking this into account, it's hardly a surprise that it was invented in Norway.
BTW, this gives us the euphemism "ergonomically mousing", which helps relieve some of the strain of the old euphemism "left-handed mousing". Well, I'm off to do some "flight simulatoring" and get to bed**.
* For more info on this topic, see pretty much anywhere on the Internets.
** All quotation marks should be accompanied with air quotation mark gestures, unless you're busy "ergonomically mousing", "left-handed mousing", or "flight simulatoring"** ***.
*** Damn, I managed to make a recursive footnote!
The view was horrible and the smell was even worse; Julie severely regretted becoming a proctologist.
the manufacturer probably thinks that left-handed people are so unbelievably elite, they never get RSI !
Why make an RSI-mouse for these great people ?
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