RSI mouse alternatives

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Anything new been invented yet that means you don't need to use a mouse?

My hands are quite painful at the moment, I got RSI from office work/data entry years ago, but it settled down a lot. Using a line trimmer and buying Age of Empires and all the mouse clicking has re- aggravated my problems.

There are a ton of alternatives, I use a combination of a switch type controller and the keyboard, so I don't have to use the mouse as much, and sometimes I use a touch pad, and also along with assistive software but my problems are probably totally different than yours.
Anyway there are, Trackballs, Joystick types, Touch pads (like would be on a laptop), Any type of switch you could think of, and Eye tracking (uses a webcam), to name a few. You can get as complicated and expensive as you want. Just google 'mouse alternatives'
Here is a website that lists a bunch of things, to get a idea
http://www.novitatech.org.au/subcategory.asp?p=247&id=3

Todd

thanks for that, i'm just looking thru it now, but a lot of the alternatives seem quite expensive...still looking though. probably the voice recognition and/or the stand alone trackpad are the cheapest options...

has anyone used any alternatives and were they fairly affordable?

trackballs are fairly easy to use [am tried one in college] still can cause problems with hand pain though.

am would think the easiest would be dragon-naturally speaking [have heard from users of it on the disability forum am use the latest version is bad] -its the most well known and well supported STT,it's widely used in schools and colleges here for people with dyslexia,but it does cost.


vista has built in STT if am remember correctly.

I think the website I gave, I am not sure what country it is in. I think I paid around $50 US for my smart cat touch pad, and there is a cheaper one also. Your cheapest option would be a trackball, for around $20, you can look at these at pretty much any electronics store. Any software option is going to be more expensive. For voice recognition software, like Kingdom said, Dragon Naturally Speaking, it is the best, its around $150 (and thats cheap for assistive software, the program I am using to type this cost $300). I use a Logitech Nulooq Navigator as my switch/controler, pretty much I use it to scroll up/down back and forth on pages, but I have it programed to do different things for each program I use, it cost $70.

Todd

I did data entry too for 8 years. I never had a problem with my hands and wrists though, I dont think I was ever fast enough. Instead I have severe eye strain, hence my interest in RSI-related matters.

i used a trackball for a while and it was really easy, i even played half-life and counter strike with a trackball and a broken hand. they're also really cheap so if you end up not liking it and can't return it you haven't wasted a lot of money.

Zen,
Do you use a screen filter? They make all differnt kinds to reduce eye strain. Also make sure there is enough humidity in the room, to make sure your eyes dont dry while at the computer. If nothing else, you could try a light pair of sun glasses, something with just a light tint.

Todd

so with Dragon (voice recognition software) can you just get it to recognise the words "click" or "double click" and "page down", is that how it works, I don't really need it for typing text, just a few basic commands would be nice to start with.

I have tested it some before, but don't have it because, well I am more the non verbal type. I don't know how well it works, but from what I read it seems to be a hit or mis thing, like for some people it seems to work really great, but others not so good, it seems to be dependent on the type of voice and how much you need to 'teach' it. They say you can use it to control most of your computer, but not sure how well that works. Also wanted to let you know that it dosent work with (or atleast supports) 64-bit operating systems or AMD's socket A processors, and if you have any trouble with the software and need to call them, they charge $10 US for the phone call.
Eather way, download the trial here, and give it a try
http://www.nuance.co.uk/plantronics/

Todd

oh thanks, rr. i'd heard of dragonspeak some years ago and i think it was a bit dodgy then...so i guess it's still a bit dodgy! i'll give the trial a go.