Has Anyone Tried the Quill Mouse? 45
Anonymous Coward asks: "Has anyone at Slashdot has heard of or used the Quill Mouse? It's an odd shaped mouse that's supposed to reduce repetitive stress injuries like Carpal Tunnel Syndrome." Rather than grabbing and moving the Quill mouse with your hands, you rest your hand in the Quill's "nook" and move the entire assembly with your arms. Since the palm of your hand is facing inward, you can then click the buttons which have been rotated to match the "nook". The web page says this hand position is less likely to cause RSI than the position a standard mouse requires. Anyone with (or who have used) a Quill Mouse care to comment?
Repetitive Stress (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Repetitive Stress (Score:5, Interesting)
is RSS actually cured by changing the position of the hand
Since it removes the "Stress" part of Repetitive Stress Injury, it prevents further damage. Probably won't cure anything, though.
I was developing problems in my forearm, so I tried the Anir Vertical Mouse [animax.no]. Made a huge difference. After using it for a few years, I can handle a normal mouse again without discomfort. Hey, maybe these things do cure RSI...
Re:Repetitive Stress (Score:2)
Re:Repetitive Stress (Score:2)
does the stress just get shifted or does this mouse actually help you overcome the stress involved with RSI
In my case, the pain was caused by overpronation of the forearm. The vertical mouse completely eliminated it. Try this: keep your upper arm at your side and raise your right forearm as though you were going to shake hands, e.g., palm to the left, thumb on top. Now rotate your forearm so the palm faces downward, like when you hold a mouse. Feel the tension along the top of your forearm? That's what
Wow... I'm speechless.... (Score:2)
RSI has little to do with blood flow; it's most often a matter of repetitive trauma. Working with a jackhammer will traumatize you, and cause problems over time... but there is considerable debate in the Orthopedic Surgery community about whether keyboarding etc even causes RSI. Several Orthopedic colleagues I've spoken to are adamant that, based on the literature, typing/
i like vertical mouse better (Score:5, Informative)
unlike the Quill, it has 5 buttons (including the wheel button), and thus easily replaced my MS explorer trackball. using a Quill i would really miss those other two buttons. it also has a smaller footprint, since your hand surrounds it, rather than being surrounded by it.
Re:i like vertical mouse better (Score:1)
Re:i like vertical mouse better (Score:1)
Re:i like vertical mouse better (Score:1)
Gorilla Arm (Score:5, Insightful)
While I wish this firm the best of luck, I believe there is a flaw in their system. I remember somewhere about one of the reasons why the touch screen failed (is still not in common use) is that it, like the Quill, relied on the muscles of the upper arm to move the hand around the screen to click (technically touch) the controls. Well, the muscles of the upper armed are designed to provide great force, as opposed to accuracy. The end result was that peoples upper arm got tired far more quickly than the wrist would, and people felt like they had "gorilla arm".
Now, I have not used this product, nor will I ever; a childhood injury prevents my wrists from rotating in the way necessary to use their mice. Therefore, they may have a perfectly reasonible way of handling the moevments. I'm just worried about their blanket assumption that the shoulder is superior tot he wrist.
Re:Gorilla Arm (Score:2)
I'll not buy a Quill or other vertical mouse. I'd rather just move my fingers when moving the mouse around than my entire arm.
RSS is a problem, but this just creates other ones. Perhaps a slanted surface for moving the mouse around would be better.
Re:Gorilla Arm (Score:2, Interesting)
Change Hands (Score:2, Insightful)
I suspect the reason is that my right arm, being dominant, applies too much force for the task, which then requires counterforce from other muscles top control the fine movem
Re:Change Hands (Score:1)
Re:Change Hands (Score:2)
Re:Change Hands (Score:2)
Danger Will Robinson (Score:2, Informative)
As to the issue about moving the arm rather than the fingers, those of us who are old enough to have had real penmanship classes remember that this is the way we were taught to write, too. After my own bout of RSI (caused by playing rogue for about 36 hours straight duri
ExtremeTech has a review... (Score:3, Informative)
Arguments and Pen Pads . . . (Score:3, Funny)
Okay, so if I put one ounce of pressure on my thumb tip it is the exact same as ten ounces on my thumb--and ends up being tens of tons a year?
I use VI in the console and ALT+Tab my way to various different screens, so I doubt I do 10,000 mouse clicks a day; let alone 2 million a year. So, I suppose, in following their arguement, that I don't walk two kilometers on my hands.
My eyelid blinks once very two seconds, 16 hours a day--or 28800 blinks. That's 10.5 million blinks a year. Again, following their logic, the amount of weight moved is, let's say two grams a blink. Oh, my God, my eyelids lift 21 metric tons! No wonder they hurt looking at their web site!
And, my hands hurt using a damn mouse, so I use a pen pad. Unfortunately, now I have a scribes callous.
Re:Arguments and Pen Pads . . . (Score:1)
Yes, it has pros and cons (Score:2)
my wrist stays steady while my entire arm moves,
with the buttons on the side at a better angle.
For me, it helps reduce fatigue and tension.
Downside is that tiny motions are trickier,
like it's difficult to hit pixels in Photoshop.
Have you looked at touchpads and rollerballs?
Cheers, Joel
P.S. maybe this page will help you? RSI reviews [unl.edu]
Yes as a matter of fact... (Score:3, Funny)
Slashdot's original story about them is here... [slashdot.org]
Seriously, though, the extremetech article was a good read.
yeah (Score:2)
Maybe when they release a left-handed version I'd remotely think about using one of these horrible things (as all right-handed mice are horrible).
I also think that right-handed mice should be illegal to put into public places without also providing left-handed mice... apparently the ADA disabilitiess act doesn't apply to thi
Re:yeah (Score:2)
Re:yeah (Score:2)
Re:yeah (Score:2)
Re:yeah (Score:2)
And, were I a lesser person, I'd speculate as to what you might have been doing with that left hand to cause that poor vision :-)
Re:yeah (Score:1)
What seemed to work for me (Score:1)
I use the contour perfit mouse (Score:1)
http://www.contourdesign.com
(say in a singsong voice)
It *does* turn your wrist, but less so than this one. They have multiple sizes of mice for both left and right hands. They *don't* have a mouse wheel, but the action of using a mouse wheel, that scruntch of your hand, is exactly the problem of ergonomics you should be fixing.
Vertical rollerball? (Score:1)
(I haven't used a regular rollerball, so I don't know if they have other disadvantages)
Re:Vertical rollerball? (Score:2)
i'm now using a vertical mouse from evoluent [ergocanada.com] (also five buttons, unlike the Quill mouse), which leaves my left hand free, but does
What on earth are they talking about? (Score:2)
"Gripped" implies holding tightly onto the mouse. I think most people just kind of rest their hands lightly on their mice. If you press too hard it gets all sticky and jams in the mousemat.
Re:What on earth are they talking about? (Score:2)
These are there so that if you click and drag and run out of space you can pick the mouse up and move it back to the middle of the mousemat and continue dragging without releasing the button. It takes a bit of getting used to, but you soon get the hang of it. If you were doing a lof of clicking and dragging and had bad technique it would soon hurt though.
The
Silly cure for bad habits (Score:2)
People do the weirdest, seemingly unnatural things with their wrist when using computers. I really don't understand where these habits come from. Perhaps it's a lack of training early on? Using a computer keyboard should
Re:Silly cure for bad habits (Score:2)
the way i use a regular mouse that causes me pain is to rotate my hand. a vertical mouse means less rotation, so less pain. it is not a matter of habit, it is the way the mouse is built.
Re:Silly cure for bad habits (Score:2)
Ok, I'll buy it. I even basically said that in my post.
it is not a matter of habit, it is the way the mouse is built.
Here's where I disagree. You are not moving your wrist because of the way the mouse is built. I cannot think of a mouse design that would force you to move your wrist during use, short of one that straps to the forearm. The use of your wrist is a bad habit, potentia
Re:Silly cure for bad habits (Score:2)
i was refering to the rotation needed to bring my hand more-or-less parallel to the table, to hold an ordinary mouse. my neutral hand position is with the palm at around 80 degrees to the table, so a vertical mouse needs a smaller rotation, in the opposite direction.
i was not thinking about the wrist motion to move the mouse, which is what you were talking about.
now that you have pointed it out, i am going to see what changing that motion might do for m