PALO
ALTO, CA - As a software systems engineer for Sun Microsystems
Inc. in Palo Alto, Greg Larsen spends eight to 10 hours a day at
a keyboard developing software for Sun's internal use. Nine years
ago, Larsen began using a mouse. Five years later, his wrist
suddenly snapped. Every day since, Larsen has been struggling
with the pain of tendinitis and carpal tunnel syndrome, which he
now has in both arms.
Larsen said Sun and his previous employer, Hewlett-Packard Co., both were very supportive to his injury and willing to provide him with ergonomically designed equipment that relieves his discomfort to some extent. As a result of his injuries, Larsen has become an evangelist of stopping the pain before it occurs. He encourages fellow employees to prevent their own injury by using devices that place less stress on the arm and hand.
"Sun has an ergonomics group that has been very proactive about looking at techniques, furniture and equipment, which I'm proud of. They're willing to listen to anybody. I wish more companies would do the same," Larsen said. Sun bought Larsen a lower keyboard tray, supplied new chairs to several employees and allowed Larsen to review several alternative input devices. As a result, Larsen began using the MOUSE-TRAK, an ergonomically designed trackball device from ITAC Systems (Garland, TX).
"I
had discovered that the mouse in general, because of the
side-to-side wrist motion, was very painful for me," Larsen
said. "I began to look for an alternate keyboard or
mouse-type device that wouldn't hurt me as much. The MOUSE-TRAK
looked like it was really effective against people hurting
themselves, so I tried it. I've liked it ever since. It has done
a great job for me.
"I
feel that with the minimized side-to-side motion, my wrist has
definitely improved in the order of 40 to 50 percent from where
it was six months ago. The pain hasn't gone away, but it's at
least a little more tolerable now. Although it has not been the
sole remedy, the MOUSE-TRAK has certainly helped," he said.
In addition to changing his input device, Larsen has undergone a
variety of medical treatments for the tendinitis, including
physical therapy, braces, ice treatments and acupuncture.
"Acupuncture
seems to be the most effective for me. The combination of
acupuncture and the MOUSE-TRAK has definitely made a difference
for me," he said. "I have less discomfort and pain than
I had before. There were times when I would come home and my
wrist would be totally numb and tingling with pain after working
with the mouse for only a few minutes. Now I can work most of the
day without having any major discomfort. The MOUSE-TRAK is a big
productivity improvement for my job," Larsen said.
Although
Larsen is right-handed, he has had to switch the input device to
his left hand when his right hand was too sore but he had no
difficulty operating it with either hand.
"It
is a fairly simple device to use - it only has three buttons. It
takes a little getting used to if you've worked with a mouse
before, but the bottom line is I think it's not that much effort
- and it's worth the effort," he said.
Larsen
has been successful in persuading a co-worker to switch from an
optical mouse to the MOUSE-TRAK to prevent potential problems. He
has been on a personal crusade at Sun to try to teach people to
get appropriate equipment for themselves to prevent injury.
"It's
a lot easier and cheaper to prevent injury than it is to cure
once you have it. I've really enjoyed the product, and I
encourage people to look at it if they need a trackball input
device. I'd like to see more people have the MOUSE-TRAK because
my personal opinion is the Sun optical mouse is particularly hard
on your wrist because it is optically driven.
"The
optical mouse has an infrared light on its underside and must be
positioned at a certain angle on a metal grid. If the angle is
off of right angles by a significant margin (45 degrees or so),
the cursor doesn't move very accurately in the intended
direction. The pad doesn't always fit on the keyboard tray along
with the keyboard, so some people put them on their desks which
makes for an awkward reach.
"You
have to align the optical mouse and keep sliding it back and
forth on the pad to make it work. That puts more strain on the
wrist. I'm surprised there aren't more people with problems
because I don't think that the optical mouse is very helpful on
people's wrists," Larsen said.
Larsen
is looking at alternative keyboards, as well, although not many
options have been available that support Sun workstations. He is
about to begin a beta test of the Data Hand from Industrial
Innovations, Inc. (Scottsdale, AZ). Not at all a traditional
keyboard, the Data Hand consists of two glove-like devices.
Rather than pounding on a keyboard, a user can wiggle his fingers
up and down and side to side in the glove's finger wells. The
movements correspond to alphanumeric keys.
A
software developer of 14 years, Larsen builds Motif GUI
applications involving a lot of point-and-click movements to
create pop-up screens, buttons and sliders. For these tasks, he
particularly values the MOUSE-TRAK's ability to "drag"
by clicking a button. He holds the left button down to select an
object, and drags it into a new position using the trackball. The
right button is used to bring up pop-up submenus and the left
button makes a selection from those menus.
"It's
an intricate maneuver that is very easy because you use your
thumb - your gross implement - to hold the button and your
fingers - with very fine control - to locate the exact menu entry
that you want to retrieve," he said.
Larsen
said tendinitis has had a severe impact on his life. His
ergonomic evangelism is his way of preventing other people from
going through the pain he has every day.
"Unfortunately,
in this industry it's only now becoming obvious, after 10 years
of people pounding on keys, that the human body is not meant to
suffer through this," Larsen said. "The more and more
we get away from the standard keyboard arrangement the better off
we're going to be. The mouse is particularly bad news, and nobody
seems to be aware of it. I'm glad the MOUSE-TRAK is out there and
I wish more people would use it.
"I
think the final solution is going to be voice input computers,
and we're not very far from that. Like in the Star Trek movie,
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, in which Scotty says, 'Oh, a
keyboard - how quaint.' When we get to that point, the problem
will be minimized, but it's going to be a transition of 15 to 20
years. We don't want to lose the workforce in the meantime,"
he said.