Ergonomic Software Eliminates Mouse Clicking

ThinSkin writes "GentleMouse is an ergonomic software program that eliminates the need to click the mouse by translating cursor movements into mouse actions, providing an easy way to perform mouse actions without manually pressing buttons or scrolling. ExtremeTech's review of the GentleMouse provides an in-depth look of this unusual software and was quite pleased with its "intuitive interface, execution, and software options" but the software "cannot overcome issues in certain apps where clicking a mouse is essential, such as when gaming or designing graphics." Here's a video tutorial of the GentleMouse in action."

All well and good

I like the look and the idea of the software, but I can't find a download link to click.

I like clicking!

It's one of the things I'm good at! If someone managed to do away with it I'd just get a mouse with a non-functioning mouse button just for laughs.

finally

Finally someone solved this problem. Index fingers rejoice!

crapola

Yeah, mouse gestures are so great. Nothing like some piece of crap software randomly interfering with what you are trying to do.

How about no mouse clicks at all?

Have a look here: http://www.dontclick.it/ [dontclick.it]

Great, now only 4 fingers to go

The problem with the typical user-computer interface paradigm is that we have to use a mouse at all (save game playing and graphics design). Moving my hand from the home position every time I need the precision of a mouse pointer is a huge annoyance and waste of time and effort. More so than pushing my index finger down.

Re:Great, now only 4 fingers to go

The problem with the typical user-computer interface paradigm is that we have to use a mouse at all (save game playing and graphics design). Moving my hand from the home position every time I need the precision of a mouse pointer is a huge annoyance and waste of time and effort. More so than pushing my index finger down.

Every DE I know of of allows for pretty fast keyboard maneuver around the screen. The fact that so few people bother to learn to use it speaks volumes in favor of the utility of a mouse, I think.

It is an ingrained thought process in humans to see, reach and grab. The mouse translates this to the computer interface: we see something we want, we "reach" to it with the pointer, and we "grab" by clicking on it. I think it works pretty well, except for those unfortunate enough to have a physical disability such as arthritis.

Coming soon...

The GentleMouse II - This next gen mouse will not only click the button and scroll for you, but it will automatically move the mouse pointer for you. You don't even have to touch the mouse. Works with the Honeywell Internal Viteous Eye Sensor (sensor and implantation surgery sold separately). Leaves hands free for interweb pr0n.

The GentleMouse GX - You not only don't have to touch the mouse, you don't have to even be near the computer thanks to the new DARPA MindLink WaveSender Interface (Majestic Ultra DOD security rating required and available separately). Now you fat lazy bastards don't even have to get out of bed!

The GentleMouse EXTREME! - The entire computer is just an neurochemical overlay in your brain. Perfect for coma patients, or people who wish they were in a coma. Your subconscious mind does all the work without any intrustion into conscious awareness. You'll just have to trust us that it's working.

It's not that new

Reminds me of Optimoz or Sensiva; both are mouse gesture programs that have been around for years. (Optimoz being a browser extension for firefox) Fun stuff, though not actually very new.

Dexterity Check, DC 15

Well, it's not for everyone, that's for sure. I've gotten really interested in mouse gestures of late though, especially on the touchpad for my laptop. It has a "Click-lock" feature which allows me to click and drag using only the touchpad. The gesture took a little bit of effort, and it's certainly not for little stubby fingers, but totally worth it. I love having an ultra-sensitive touchpad, and the addition of this gesture allows me to avoid the clumsiness of holding down the button with my thumb while dragging stuff across my desktop. I need only one button on my touchpad now: the one that pops up the context menu.

NVIDIA had a mouse gesture for switching between desktops a while back, whipping the mouse around in a circle clockwise or counterclockwise depending on which desktop you wanted to use. It wasn't great -- I had a hard time getting the sensitivity exactly right -- but it was a novel way to control the computer. I hope to see more developments like this; I'm sure most of us hacker types that have great keyboarding skills will get a lot of use out of more flexible, customizable mouse control.

OMG

eliminates the need to click the mouse

We have hit an all new low on the laziness scale.

The solution more complex that the problem?

Nice, but the motion seems more complicated than just clicking.
In my opinion the perfect input device should not have moving parts, just two microphones. Here's a description of a purely acoustic keyboard.
http://nanoquimica.awardspace.com.nyud.net:8080/So undkey.htm [nyud.net]LINK

wow!

This is nasty! My computer just learned how to "double click its mouse".

FINALLY

Finally, these [precision-camera.com] can be useful!

Oh wait, it only runs on Windows.

RSI?

I've never experienced aches or pains from a mouse. Then again, I'm 19. Still, carpal tunnel, arthritis, and RSI seem much more reasonable from the motions necessary to press the keys on the old-style clicky keyboard that I use than the miniscule mouse-click movement. Not that I'm trying to troll; I'm curious. Has anyone here ever gotten repetitive-stress injuries from clicking a mouse? Wouldn't typing the y, h, and d keys kill your finger much quicker?

For a mouse without buttons...

... because one-buttoned mice still are too complex...

Typical Windows-centric review

The review doesn't even bother giving the system requirements, not telling us it's a Windows only utility.
This really shows how Linux or Mac users are non-existent in the world of ExtremeTech.
Nothing to see here, move along.

*sigh* Slashdotted.

"It's dead, Jim."

Obligatory HHGTG

A loud clatter of gunk music flooded through the Heart of Gold cabin as Zaphod searched the sub-etha radio wavebands for news of himself. The machine was rather difficult to operate. For years radios had been operated by means of pressing buttons and turning dials; then as the technology became more sophisticated the controls were made touch-sensitive - you merely had to brush the panels with your fingers; now all you had to do was wave your hand in the general direction of the components and hope. It saved a lot of muscular expenditure of course, but meant that you had to sit infuriatingly still if you wanted to keep listening to the same programme.

A better way to save yourself from RSI

play foosball.

Am I the only one...

who tried to envision what the opposite of a "gentle" mouse would be?

meh

sounds annoying. I'll take my extra clicking over having to waste time waiting.

Good for the disabled, maybe

As for the rest of us... how in the hell is this an improvement on clicking?

Great!

Now Apple can justify selling computers that have mouses with no buttons.

Got rid of mouse clicks by adding annoying menus

Now why the hell would I want to see a menu pop-up everytime I hover my mouse pointer over something?

"For that brief second while you hover over a link, a small transparent window pops up and displays a list of common click commands. You can select a command simply by moving the cursor over that desired command..."

what about ActiveClick...

There is a alternative to GentleMouse - it's ActiveClick and it's free! Why spend money...???

http://www.activeclick.com/ [activeclick.com]

If you go to the ActiveClick homepage - it gives you the serial # to unlock ActiveClick without paying for it.

Maybe I'm wrong..

Maybe I'm way off base, but I didn't think that clicking a mouse was really a huge cause of RSI... it seems like such a small motion.

I suppose some people might find this software to be more comfortable, but as someone who moves around on their mouse and keyboard really quickly (People watching me use my computer tend to get confused and ask how the hell I have any idea what I'm doing), I doubt this would really help me that much.

But hey, there's a lot of people out there, with a lot of different computer habits, and I wouldn't be suprised to learn that some people found this really useful... but it just doesn't sound very appealing to me at all.

Not such a good idea

Trying to predict what a user is wanting to do is quite useless. Knowing what the user wants to do is what matters. Imagine moving the mouse out of the way so it wouldn't be in a website-embedded video. Oops! Nevermind! Since my mouse was over my other web browser, it brought it into focus. Try to move it back to focus the window? Oops, moved it over a link on the page, now I'm on Disney.com.

Great idea, and toy, but I can't see it ever hitting mainstream. It would definitely have its uses for accessiblity applications, however.

Oh great...

So now you jerk the mouse around instead of slightly depressing a button with your finger?

I click my mouse thousands of times per day and that's hardly a problem for my wrists. I get much more pain from typing, reading books or MOVING THE MOUSE AROUND.

no clicks

this one made my life easier https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/2207/ [mozilla.org]

Old news

I think the idea of mouse gestures was implemented years ago. From what I remembered, it was called "glicks".

Google will like this

No more click fraud!

Only 1000?

Computer users can click a mouse up to a thousand times on a full day... I guess they never played Poke the Bunny

How to get people to click ads

Finally an answer to the ever popular question of how to get people to click on advertisements.

I dont think clicking is the issue.

This is a great idea, but in practice the majority of the RSI injuries I see come from the repetitive side to side motion made while dragging the mouse across the screen. In a traditional palm-down mouse, your radial and ulnar bones in your lower arm cross. This constricts the tendon sheaths, resulting in inflammation and eventually scarring.

The ideal long term hand position is thumb-up...think of holding a joystick (does anyone remember those?). The bones doesnt cross, and you use stronger muscles to move the cursor. In this position, your bicep and deltoid (shoulder) muscles carry the load, instead of the weaker muscles in your lower arms. Your palmar muscles are quite strong, and more than capable of the workload of a day's worth of traditional clicking.

If you've ever been rock climbing, you'll notice your arms muscles tire long before your fingers do. Or try this, pick up your mouse and move it side to side 200 times. Arm tired yet? Now click 200 times at the same rate. Feels easier, doesnt it?

GentleMouse may help alleviate some of the causes of RSI; however, in my opinion a upright mouse design will keep your arms healthy in a much more ergonomic way.

Use a Graphics Tablet

As a suffer of RSI type symptoms, I have found that simply using a mouse is painful and can bring on tingling/numbness through the posture and wrist movements alone. Clicking is only one part of the problem. In my case I was told my injury was likely to have been caused by constant left/right wrist movements and having the lower arm muscles in a tense state for long periods through simply gripping/moving the mouse.

For me what has worked in minimising the symptoms and letting me be productive again was a Tablet/Pen interface, the position you hold it in is a *lot* more natural and doesn't exert anywhere near as much pressure on the wrist, left clicking is effortless. Some Tablets now come with a touchbar on the side for easy scrolling as well.

That being said, the program looks quite handy and could go quite well possibly alongside a pen interface (where multi-button clicking can still be awkward) but as an 'anti' RSI measure your a *lot* better off with a tablet (with which you can still do Photoshop, 3D, and most games).

Sure a tablet costs more - but at the end of the day if it's your health your concerned about ~£100 for a reasonable Wacom (less for a clone) would be money far better spent. I just wish I had got one earlier and saved myself a *lot* of grief - you don't generally give a damn though about RSI type disorders till youve got one though unfortunately.

Meh. I care not.

Maybe I'm alone in this or something, but clicking the mouse doesn't hurt my wrists at all after 20 years of using computers. It's holding the mouse button down while moving the mouse that hurts.

Even if I use a trackball, I get the same problem (but in a different area of the wrist).

Either these people are way off the mark, or I am more unique than I'd like to be.

Clicking with the fingers is optional.

I got tired of repetitively moving my hand from the keyboard to the mouse, so I designed and build my own advanced keyboard that incorporates all the features and performance of a stand alone optical mouse. I call it the keyboard of the future.

I have eliminated the stand-alone mouse.

I can point, click, type, and scroll in any order simultaneously and instantly all from the home row.

I can click and/or scroll with my fingers or use optional foot pedals to click.

My keyboard gives you total and complete control of the computer screen all from the home row.

It is superior to and dominates all other devices in performance, productivity, and efficiency.

I do not know when it will be on the market, but it will impress you.

It also addresses the caps lock problem some people have (caps lock problem, over a 1000 comments on slashdot), and the delete, backspace, and esc keys have been moved to a more convenient place.

It is a high performance, high productivity, and comfortable keyboard.

google: inputexpert ( for the interface of the future)

from the "father of the perfect keyboard"

Something tells me...

that this won't actually improve my Minesweeper times.

Touchscreen

The mouse was a teaching aide to introduce users to the idea of moving the cursor on the screen the way they'd move a real object on their desk. Touchscreen tech was too crude in the early 1970s, or even in the 1980s, to introduce for direct pointing.

But now it works. Over a decade of PDA touchscreens has funded R&D that can put a precise, stable point just above the fingernail or stylus of any user.

Why do I have to use even a little trackpad in short strokes for indirect control of the cursor, when I could just point directly at that cursor? And why can't I use multiple fingers to describe lines, polygons, movement directions, multiple selections, and everything else I do with real objects on my real desktop?

Trackball

Everytime I seen a new mouse solution come up, no one ever mentions trying a trackball. Yes, it still has click buttons (but from the demo it wasn't clear to me how exactly you popped up the windows and didn't pick the wrong one), but all the movement is with one finger and no wrist movement.

Re:At least we can all agree to kill "double-click

On Xfce, I've never had any icons except the ones on the bottom of the screen that open in one click.

Re:kmousetool

Kmousetool [kde.org] is the KDE-port of Jef Roush' excellent Mousetool [mousetool.com] (for Windows) application. He maintained Kmousetool, a very (very) rudimentary version of Mousetool, for a short while. Mousetool was freeware, but since Jef started working for Designer Appliances, it is now no longer free and Kmousetool development has stopped. The KDE Accessibility team (that hosts the Kmousetool project) is now mainly interested in supporting the AT-SPI accessibility framework (which is nice, by the way), so they don't continue to work on it. A student of mine wrote a Qt4 port of Kmousetool, and he has notified the KDE Accessibility team in case they were interested, but got no response. Pity, that.

I use Kmousetool regularly, when my hands are too sore, but only when really necessary. Reason is that it doesn't always behave as expected and is very limited (Mousetool and GentleMouse have many, many more features). For example, Kmousetool only does left clicking and you still need to right/middle click manually. Selecting an item from a context menu is awkward: often an automatic left click click is generated right after the manual right click to show the menu and the item that happens to be under the cursor is selected without having actually seen it properly.

If only I had some more time to learn some C++... I actually started working on Kmousetool a few years back, but had to stop because of other duties...