Sunday, June 03, 2007

Hands Free Mouse

I recently purchased a hands free alternative to the mouse. Due to my Muscular Dystrophy, I was starting to lose strength in my hands. It got to the point that it was getting more difficult to move the mouse and click the buttons. I constantly needed help to put my hand on my mouse, since it kept slipping off. I was losing the strength to keep my hand on my mouse. Using the computer started to become a frustrating and tiring experience for me. I started to feel discouraged.

But all this would change when I discovered the Naturalpoint SmartNav 3:AT hands free mouse. It uses an infra-red camera mounted on top of my monitor to track my head movement. A reflective dot stuck to the bridge of my glasses reflects the light back to the camera which tells the computer to move the pointer. To click, it uses a feature called dwell clicking in which I hover over the item I want to click for a few seconds and it clicks. To type I use an on-screen keyboard. This device has made the computer easier and more enjoyable to use.