RollerMouse Aims to Replace the Traditional Mouse 297
ThinSkin writes "Over at ExtremeTech, we have reviewed the RollerMousePRO, an ergonomic input device that claims to reduce pain and discomfort associated with repetitive mouse use while also increasing productivity. The idea behind the product is to have a fully functional docking station for your keyboard that allows you to navigate a cursor without much hand movement. There is an interesting Flash demo that illustrates how this works." Using a roller-bar beneath the keyboard may remind some people of the Outbound Macintosh-based laptop.
My optical mouse isn't going anywhere (Score:5, Interesting)
How is this better (Score:4, Interesting)
Faugh on the mouse monopoly! (Score:3, Interesting)
Supermouse (Score:5, Interesting)
One way to tell it's time to change jobs: Increasing your mouse speed and accuracy noticeably improves your productivity.
Re:Faugh on the mouse monopoly! (Score:3, Interesting)
Could you briefly explain how it actually works? Those morons at SuperMondoExtremeTech-X failed to actually describe what the F this rollermouse is, other than "an updated version of the OLD rollermouse". The pictures show what looks like, to me, a roller. This only acounts for the vertical axis. How does horizontal movement work?
Re:How is this better (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:How is this better (Score:3, Interesting)
Anyway they are great, as you don't have to move your hands off the keyboard to move the mouse and you can use either hand and share the load abit between hands. For some reason I tend to use my left hand the most instead of my dominant right hand which is weird, especially as I use my right hand to use a normal mouse.
Re:What pain and discomfort? (Score:3, Interesting)
Well, not sure of the product or their marketing ploy...
However, I do know that people that are suffering from RSI injuries, and using a mouse adds to the pain and discomfort they have, as it creates further swelling in the wrist area, putting pressure on the nerves.
Now whether a mouse or keyboard created the RSI injuries is up for debate, because even in the people I have worked with, it can't be demonstrated to have one single activity that created the problem.
Also, products like this 'may', like I said, help with people that already have RSI injuries, but one of the most effective and simplistic solutions for RSI suffers in a Pen Tablet, whether it be a desktop Wacom or a full blown Tablet PC. The Pen (or Pencil) seems to create less pain for existing RSI users, and pen devices are also cheap now and also add functionality if the people do any handwriting notes or paint on their computers.
(Yes a pen tablet can take a bit for users to get use to, but once they do, most prefer it over a common mouse, especially because of the absolute mapping and precision that comes with it.)
You're right! (Score:2, Interesting)
Statistically analyzed data is much more informative, true, but anecdotal data has actually been used to justify medical decisions since the beginning. Only recently has evidence based medicine taken hold so that we evaluate the anecdotal data and see if the shit we have been doing has any effect whatsoever.