back to article Doc develops RSI-reducing rolling mouse

Could this mouse reduce your risk of developing repetitive strain injury? Creator SmartFish thinks so. SmartFish ErgoMotion Mouse SmartFish's ErgoMotion Mouse is essentially a standard mouse mounted on top of a tilt-and-pivot joint and a baseplate. The idea: as you steer the rodent around, your hand rolls and pitches rather …

COMMENTS

This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. The Indomitable Gall

    Ergonomic...?

    Hang on -- the guys developed a "mouse" that encourages extension of the wrist and he calls it ergonomic? Last I knew, wrist flexion during dextrous tasks put excessive pressure on the tendons.

    It also risks causing over-rotation of the wrist -- for a right-handed moving left, or a left-hander moving right, it means the palm moves beyond parallel to the desk, and parallel is the extreme of comfortable motion.

    If you want an ergonomic mouse, buy a joystick.

    1. Jatzmon
      Megaphone

      Wrist flexion pain is a sign of injury not the cause

      Any fine motor movement becomes painful once your wrist becomes inflamed. The cause is increased pressure of fluid in your joints, which can only be alleviated with movement. Once that fluid is pushed along, pre sure is removed and the pain of wrist flexion or fine motor movement should be alleviated. Check out this recent review: http://www.nzgirl.co.nz/buy/deluxe-computer-mice/comment-page-1/#comment-2901

      Jack Atzmon inventor of the Smartfish Mouse

  2. Tom 38

    Sidewinder Commander

    Looks effectively the same as Microsoft's Sidewinder Commander. Wonder if it is just as ridiculously difficult to control.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    This article needs a video

    To show how it moves around.

  4. Martin Lyne

    Hmm

    Great idea.. but design an adaptable frame to holster existing mice (laser i'd suppose, maybe optical with a lens or something)

    I'd really want to see it in action too.. my RSI crippled gamer hands might no longer be able of making these drastic rolling motions :P

    1. Jatzmon
      Megaphone

      interesting idea

      The problem with the a pedestal attachment is that it would make the mouse too tall. Our mouse is actually half a mouse built on a short pivot creating a pivot mouse with the equivalent height of an ordinary mouse.

  5. Neil 23

    You had me till "chiropractor"

    though I suppose "former" goes some way to alleviate that...

  6. James Micallef Silver badge
    Thumb Up

    Cool idea

    It not only reduces wrist strain, it also greatly minimizes the amount of desk space needed to operate it on, since you don't need to move it around. One of those great ideas that I would think "That's so simple, I would have thought of that"... except that I didn't.

    The only drawback might be a tendency to move up/down when clicking the buttons, but if the whole mechanism is stiff enough and teh buttons sensitive enough would not be a problem.

    Well done & good luck

  7. Edward 2

    Not very useful

    Surely no-one operates a mouse with their wrist off the desk, as shown in the videos on their website. Smells like a solution in search of a problem.

    1. Jatzmon
      Happy

      Good point

      We only showed the wrist off the desk so you would be able to see the mouse movement better. We will address this in our next video.

      Thanks for the feedback.

      Jack Atzmon

      CEO, Smartfish Technologies

  8. Luther Blissett

    It's not what you've got, it's how you use it

    > “When using a static mouse, the hand, wrist and arm are confined to a fixed position that limits natural movements,”

    Only if your rodent forces you to clamp a paw over it to drive it, as the bog-standard sized ones do. OTOH I can work a miniature rodent with my fingertips - I buy 'em for £3 by the bucketload, and if they only last 6 months WTF.

  9. Richard Gadsden 1

    The title is required, and must contain letters and/or digits.

    Smartifsh may say they will ship to a UK address, but they haven't told Amazon payments that, so you can't order one anyway.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Grenade

    Dr as in "Dr Nick"

    Simply looking at it, it seems obvious that the carpels will be doing *more* work than with a regular mouse! Using a wristpad, a trackball, sitting correctly at your desk, adopting a dvorak or colmacs keyboard layout that reduce finger travel ; those are solutions to RSI (which in the main part is caused mainly by bad typing posture rather than mousing).

    Then I saw... as recommended by a chiropractor. Bazinga confirmed.

    That lovely bunch of ch*rlatans who aren't answerable to, or registered with the general medical council, aren't usually permitted to prescribe drugs, who on occasion don't "believe" in vaccination, and don't bother with a little thing like double-blind case studies to support their claims... but somehow get away with calling themselves "Doctors" and manipulating the spines of children (and relentlessly pursuing critics with legal action).

    I've heard a first hand account of a person hobbling into A&E with a broken bone in her foot. Her chiropractor had put the pain down to a spinal alignment problem and for the previous month had been giving her twice weekly spinal manipulations at fifty quid a pop. My own aunt was fleeced by these wiseguys who had no problem doing some joint cracking on the (recently broken) arthritic wrists of an 85 year old.

    If their previous is anything to go by, they can shove that mouse up their 10th charkra and call it "medical science".

    1. Jatzmon
      Megaphone

      This mouse was not recommended by a chiropractor!

      This mouse was invented by a Doctor of Chiropractic and designed in collaboration with the USA's number one orthopedic hospital, the Hospital for Special Surgery.

      It is universally accepted that movement and postural change is the key to comfort and injury avoidance, our designs put this ergonomic principal to work on desktops.

      Jack Atzmon

      CEO, Smartfish Technologies

  11. Ammaross Danan
    Alert

    Ah, but...

    But does it come with a charger stand like my MX5000?

  12. Martin Gregorie

    My personal RSI attacks...

    ...have been brought on by:

    (1) a touch pad. That was easy to fix: I won't buy or use a PC with a touch pad. If forced to use one, I plug in a mouse.

    (2) the scroll wheel on a mouse. That was also easy to fix: I took the top off, filled the scroll wheel bearing with cyanoacrylate (superglue to the unwashed) and reassembled it. In case you're wondering, I needed to stop the wheel from turning so I wouldn't reflexively spin it. Everything else on the mouse still works as expected because I was careful where I put the glue. Scrolling? Thats what the arrow and PgUp/PgDn keys are for. Result: no more RSI in my left (mouse) hand and no need to buy a fancy medically approved mouse.

  13. flibble
    Unhappy

    Doesn't seem to ship to the UK

    If there's a UK shipping option on their website I can't see it - I get sent to amazon.com, which refuses to ship the mouse to a UK address.

    1. Jatzmon

      Sorry for the inconvenience

      I will cheek our website and have this remedied immediately.

      Jack Atzmon

      CEO, Smartfish Technologies

  14. Kevin McMurtrie Silver badge
    WTF?

    800dpi?

    What does 800dpi mean for a device that pivots like a joystick? How does it perform nonlinear motion if you can't pick it up like a mouse or reposition your finger like a trackpad? With 2560x1600 being the new standard resolution, I can't imagine pointing to things with linear tracking. It would be like trying to support a telescope with your hands.

    1. Jatzmon

      Not a joystick

      It's a laser mouse with a pivot built solely to increase in comfort and improve ergonomics.

  15. Jon Green
    FAIL

    So much for shipping to the UK

    "SmartFish said it will ship to UK-based buyers."

    Perhaps it should tell its Amazon shipping partner about that. I get:

    "We're sorry. Your items can't be shipped to your selected destination. Please select a different shipping address."

    Amazon's had no trouble shipping to that address before, even from the US.

    Hear that #ker-ching#? No, me neither.

  16. Clive Galway
    FAIL

    Just a joystick?

    I don't see how this can replace a mouse.

    A mouse is a relative input device - this looks more like a joystick, which is absolute.

    The device *could* be relative (ie if it is sprung to the center) but then you would not be able to pick it up to recenter.

    1. Tony Smith, Editor, Reg Hardware (Written by Reg staff)

      Re: Just a joystick?

      It's mouse - it moves around the desk. The tilt and pivot bit is nothing to do with control per se, only the angle at which you hold it at a given place on your desk.

      1. Mage Silver badge
        Alert

        Not a joystick?

        "It's mouse - it moves around the desk. The tilt and pivot bit is nothing to do with control per se, only the angle at which you hold it at a given place on your desk."

        Then it's too high off the desk for comfort at all.

        1. Jatzmon
          Happy

          It is the same height as standard ergonomic mice

          In fact while being tilted it is even shorter than standard mice.

  17. Llanfair
    Paris Hilton

    Price

    Why are there two prices? Both in pound sterling?

    "Available now, the ErgoMotion Mouse costs £50 (£32). SmartFish said it will ship to UK-based buyers. "

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    Alternatively, for a fiver...

    ...I'll sell you a mouse mat with a hump.

  19. This post has been deleted by its author

  20. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    So, an ergonomic mouse which still uses a wheel. Errr.

    The one thing I find makes my wrists worse than anything is a scroll wheel, which this still has. Wouldn't a scroll switch or even some sort of touch sensitive scroll pad be better?

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Won't ship to UK yet, AFAICS

    The fine article ends by saying Smartfish says it will ship to UK customers. But trying to buy direct from its Web site routes you to Amazon for payment - and Amazon.com will NOT ship to a UK address. It says so explicitly. As for Amazon.co.uk, it has no knowledge of the product.

    So Smartfish may have the best of intentions, but as far as the UK is concerned this product does not yet exist. Unless you happen to be travelling to the States, or have friends there.

    1. Smartfish Employee
      Happy

      Shipping is Available

      Shipping to the U.K. is available, and we have already sent out lots of ErgoMotion Laser Mice to the U.K.

      Please check our site again

      http://www.getsmartfish.com/

      Thanks,

      Joseph

  22. johnnytruant

    best rsi reducing pointing device

    in my experience is a trackball I got for 20 quid from PC World.

  23. Geoff Mackenzie
    WTF?

    Would this be ...

    ... the bullshit type of chiropractor? From the 'clinic' website:

    "Chiropractic philosophy recognizes that the power that created the body can heal the body - as long as there is no interference. The doctor does not heal you, he is a co-facilitator with you for your body to be put in the correct environment to heal itself. The main purpose of the chiropractor is to reduce interference to your inborn, innate healing ability."

    Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm. I seeeeeeee.

    Can't wait to get my hands on this pointless overpriced wobbly mouse thing. The guy obviously knows what he's talking about. What a co-facilitator.

  24. Matt 13

    looks funky, but....

    where is the bluetooth version! i only have a finite number of usb sockets and I have a real aversion to having stuff poking out of my laptop, spoiling its clean lines...

  25. Anonymous Coward
    Unhappy

    next...

    The trouble is most RSI that I've seen from using a mouse is from large amounts of left clicking, especially in graphics designers, and users of software like Photoshop.

    I've yet to see a mouse which targets this problem well...

  26. JP19

    Garbage

    Based on the false notion that people should flail around with a mouse on the end of their arm.

    The 'heel' of my palm hardly ever leaves the mouse mat or moves providing comfortable support for my arm without downward pressure on the mouse. Bending and straightening fingers (thumb and little mostly) gives all the up/down motion I need and pivoting at the wrist all the side to side.

    I have spent thousands of hours using mouse and keyboard for CAD software and gaming. The only strain I have experienced occasionally is in the shoulder of my keyboard arm.

This topic is closed for new posts.