Design and validation of a desk-free and posture-independent input device

Evaluating the effect of four different pointing device designs on upper extremity posture and muscle activity during mousing tasks

“…For instance, several studies have shown that placement of the mouse closer to the center line of the operator reduces non-neutral shoulder and wrist postures as well as reducing muscle activity of both the forearm and the shoulder (Sommerich et al, 2002;Dennerlein, 2006;Kumar andKumar, 2008, Harvey, 1997). Other studies have shown that the design of the pointing device has little effect on neck and shoulder posture and muscle activity; however, they do have an effect on forearm muscle activity (Lee, 2005(Lee, , 2008. Despite all of this work, few studies have investigated hand postures.…”

Assessment of functional parameters and comfort of a new computer mouse as compared with other types of input devices

“…The results of the present study showed that speed and accuracy of trackpad ranked fourth among the devices studied. Lee and Su [17] reported a better performance for the standard mouse as compared with that of track-pad. As shown in Tables 1 and 2, although the performance of the standard mouse was to some extent better than Ergomice, there was no significant difference between functional parameters of the two devices.…”

“…Previous studies have shown that the standard mouse has a significantly better performance than any other new ergonomic mice. [16,17] According to Capener, [18] thumb, index and middle fingers form a prehensile tripod that could be used for precise activities. This was considered in the design of Ergomice so that it could be held between the flexed index and middle fingers and the thumb [19] ( Figure 2).…”

Ease of juggling

“…In the HCI context, the topic has been recognized, particularly in the area of novel user interfaces, where several solutions have been presented with the general goal of freeing the user's resources for multitasking [3,8,13,17,18,24,32]. However, to our knowledge, no principle-based approach (either method or model) has been proposed that would address the issue in general:…”

“…In particular, mobile devices are intended to be usable in the maximum possible number of everyday situations, but observations suggest that users struggle with the physical objects involved [20,28]. Novel user interfaces (UIs) have been proposed to improve multitasking, among them haptic [17], wrist-based [3], hands-free [32], one-handed [18], posture-independent [13], crossmodal [8], and nomadic [24] interfaces. However, the issue's relevance extends beyond mobile use: "ease of juggling" is a desirable quality in many kinds of interactive system from treadmills to calculators.…”