RSI-Relief

I finally purchased the Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000, after some months of dawdling as I waited for it to go on sale (what can I say - I’m frugal).
I had already been using an ergonomic keyboard (an old PC Concepts SK-6000), so the transition for me was fairly easy, though the key locations were [...]

I’ve recently added a new section to this web site, focussing on RSI Books. Included are all the currently available publications I could find, covering the following topics:

Books about Repetitive Strain Injury
Books about Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
Books about Related Conditions
Books about Ergonomics

The “related conditions” section includes works about topics such as Fibromyalgia, Myofascial Pain, Thoracic Outlet [...]

This is a topic I’d never thought much about, but as Lilly PuTian says at Blogcritics.org, “If a keyboard is made, like many things, for the average man, then for the person who is smaller, much smaller than the average male, the keyboard is oversized.”
Lilly is under five feet tall, weighs less than 100 pounds, [...]

At InternetNews.com, Sean Michael Kerner writes about Workrave (How Open Source Saved My Neck), the free break reminder program from developer Raymond Penners.
Workrave is a program that assists in the recovery and prevention of Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI). The program frequently alerts you to take micro-pauses, rest breaks and restricts you to your daily limit. [...]

If, like I do, you have a soft spot in your heart (and perhaps an empty spot in your wallet) for unusual input devices, you’ll enjoy reading Mikael Svärdh’s article at Fosfor Gadgets, The Top 10 Weirdest Keyboards Ever.
Here’s the list:

Roll-up Keyboard
The Wrist Keyboard
Maltron 3D Ergonomic Keyboard
The SafeType Keyboard
Virtual Laser Keyboard
The Frogpad
The Twiddler 2
The Orbitouch
The [...]

Jeremy Atkinson has a reviw of the Evoluent Vertical Mouse 2 (Is the VerticalMouse 2 Worth a Thumbs Up?) at ExtremeTech.com.
We’d reported on an earlier review of the mouse, from LIVEdigitally.com nearly a year ago. So the mouse has been available for awhile, but is apparently still gaining attention.

There’s a review of the DataHand Ergonomic Keyboard at atpm.com. Paul Fatula discusses this unusual input device and how it can be useful for RSI sufferers:
One of the ways the Datahand helps to reduce RSI-related pain comes through requiring far less finger movement to type than do other keyboards. Each finger rests in a “well,” [...]

Let’s face it, typical video game controllers are not an RSI sufferer’s best friend. The button-mashing and thumbstick-twirling that are typical of many video games can bring on Repetitive Strain Injury all by themselves.
Personally, I’ve largely had to give up on video game consoles. I can only play for a short period of [...]

VoiceCode is an open source project started by the National Research Council of Canada, to enable programmers with RSI to continue programming. As reported by New Scientist Magazine, the new speech recognition tool promises to “let programmers write clean code without ever having to lay a finger on their keyboard.”
“Some estimates suggest 22% of all [...]

Step User Interface (Step UI), an innovative technology prototype that encourages people to control their computers using their feet in addition to their hands, was among more than 150 innovative concepts featured at the sixth annual Microsoft Research TechFest.
The Step UI evolved from efforts by Microsoft researchers Brian Meyers, A.J. Brush, Steven Drucker and Marc [...]