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."

Trackball

[CastrTroy]

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.

Re:Nothing like discrimination...

[imsabbel]

Do you want some cheese to that whine?

If you get the left/right handed ratio to 50:50, so that both items are produced and shipped in the same quantities, you can expect them to cost the same.

A different type of vertical mouse:

[dickwolf]

I've owned a few vertical mice like this [3m.com], 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.

Re:A step backward

[Hays]

I used an evoluent vertical mouse for months. Where did I rest my hand? On the mousepad. Maybe if you have small hands this is an issue?

As it happens, the vertical mouse didn't seem to help at all with my RSI.

Re:Trackball

[Seraphim_72]

Amen to that brother.

My personal choice is the MS Trackball Explorer [microsoft.com]. Wonderfull design, acurate optical and very nice drivers in MS (holy buckets does mouse button control in linux blow chow). As fate would have it they got discontinued. I snapped up 3 that I plan on slowly doleing out over the years even though my current 3 (2 at home, 1 at work) work great and have for years. I looked around quite a bit before I bought the three, but found nothing that came close to it's ergonomics, and abilities. And no, don't suggest a thumb type trackball, I have used a few and it makes my thumb hurt just looking at them.

Sera

Nothing new under the sun..

[the_rajah]

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. [vibroplex.com]

73

Homer Simpson's Shoe

[kleptonin]

My girlfriend uses the VerticalMouse 2 (photo [ziffdavisinternet.com]) 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.

Re:A step backward

[UVABlows]

I have a quill mouse and it worked wonders for the pain in my wrist and forearm. I can't get linux to recognize clicking the scroll wheel though. It works in windows.

Why the evoluent vertical mouse is best

[Rhett]

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.

Re:On trends ...

[scutato]

*ahem*

We're not too crazy about the list price--$75 for the standard righty model and $105 for lefty

There is a left-handed version, but it's super expensive. Indeed, the right-handed one would be very hard to use with your left hand ;)

Re:Mice Innovation has been stunted by MS/Logitech

[runstopwire]

I'm using a Contour Design PerfitMouse http://www.contourdesign.com/pmo/ [contourdesign.com]. It comes in seven sizes, from small to XL, and for lefties and righties. I got the XL size and it fits me like a glove. Yes, it's big, but I have big hands. Regular mice now seem too small. The mouse cost me over $100 but, believe me, when it comes to your health, cost is no object.

Like the parent poster suggested, this mouse comes with a thumb scrollwheel and an additional rocking thumbswitch. My hand is tilted at approximately 20 degrees. Not vertical, but not horizontal, either. It's very comfortable to use.

It took me about two weeks to get used to it. In other words, it took about two weeks for my hand to "unlearn" its unnatural grip on a regular mouse and to instead stretch out on the PerfitMouse.

Does the mouse look sexy on my desk? No. Is it wireless? No. Is it comfortable and pain-free to use? YES!

Re:A step backward

[Bluesman]

I had the same problem.

You need this mouse. [tigerdirect.com]

It's pretty large and high so it fills up large hands and keeps them off the table a bit.

I've got one

[taradfong]

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.